Silence (up for adoption)
by Death to Barbie 0206
Summary: Hello, I'm Percy Jackson. I'm deaf and mute, can't talk, can't hear. This is the story of my life. PERCABETH, even if Annabeth (SPOILER ALERT!) is a bitch in the first few chapters. Rated T cause I'm paranoid. Please review and enjoy! P.S. This has NO DEMIGODS IN IT! IT IS ALL MORTAL! Solangelo of course!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, guys, so I don't how many of you saw the note, but I am rewriting this story. I'll repost the first few chapters when I've written them, okay? Yea? Nay?**

 **So, here we go. I'll follow the original plot, kind of, but I'll lengthen it and sort of add more to it. It's just that I started this story so long ago, and I have big plans for it now. So, ready? Let's go.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing! Except for the five hundred dollars I have, and this cupcake that I'm eating right now, oh, and the plot of this story. The idea, sadly, came from littlepurpleninja, not me. But it's still my story!**

 **Percy POV, by the way**

I curled into a ball in the corner, putting my hands over my head in an attempt to shield myself from the fierce anger radiating off of my mom and Smelly Gabe, who were both yelling at each other furiously. My mom's face was screwed up in fury, and her brown hair was flying everywhere as she screamed words that I could not hear at Gabe.

Gabe looked equally furious, even going as far as to throw a beer bottle at my mom. Luckily, he was drunk and much too angry to aim properly, so he missed by about three feet. Still, the gesture didn't go unnoticed, and it just served to anger my mom more.

Her mouth moved fast, much too fast for my limited lip-reading skills to interpret. Apparently, what she had said had infuriated Gabe beyond belief, because he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and held a glass shards to my throat.

I gulped and struggled desperately, sinking my teeth into his hand. Gabe leaped backwards and I assumed that he yelped in pain. There was a thump as I landed on my back, and my mom immediately knelt down beside me.

Her mouth moved slowly, but my vision was blurring and white stars were dancing through my vision. I couldn't make out what she was saying, and apparently she knew that too.

 _'Are you okay?'_ She signed, her expression full of concern. I blinked and pushed myself up onto my elbows, wincing as the sudden movement sent a twang of pain through my back.

' _I'm fine,'_ I signed, sitting up fully. My mom helped me up and we left the room, but not before she shot a glare at Gabe and said something hotly. Gabe flushed with anger, but my mom and I ran up the stairs and she slammed the door and locked it behind us.

We sat down on my bed and she pulled my shirt up, checking my ribs and back for injuries. ' _That's going to bruise,'_ she signed, letting my shirt fall around my body again. ' _Why don't you just lie down for a bit? It's almost eight; you can go to bed.'_

I nodded sleepily and lay down, pulling my worn blanket up around me. My mom tucked the blanket in around me and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. The bed moved slightly and I could tell that she had sat down somewhere.

There was gentle pressure on my back and I recognized the sign language lenters being pressed into my aching back. ' _Good night, Percy.'_

I reached my hands out from under the blankets and drowsily signed something along the lines of, ' _Good night, love you mom.'_

My bed shifted again and I could tell that my mom had left. (My god, it's so hard to write from the POV of a character who can't hear! Like, right here for example. I really, really wanted to write that Percy's mom whispered good night to him, but then I remembered he's deaf. And then there's the fact that I wanted to write that he heard his mom leaving, but argh he's deaf! Rrraaaahhhhh!)

My mind drifted off and I found myself falling asleep, even though I knew that somewhere in our ratty LA apartment, my mom was probably in a huge fight with Gabe, and could possibly be hurt.

On second thought, that woke me up completely.

I yawned and wriggled out from my cocoon of blankets, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and padding over to the door, pressing my ear up against it before I realized that I was being stupid. I was deaf. How could I hear anything? Especially through a door.

Shaking my head at my stupidity, I cracked the door open and peeked out, making sure to look at the floor and confirm that there were no glass shards from the beer bottles lying on the floor before cautiously stepping into the hallway.

It was at times like these that I sincerely wished I could hear. Maybe then things like this wouldn't be so terrifying, because I could know that I would be able to hear anybody sneaking up on me. Sadly, I couldn't say that or think that.

Tiptoing quietly through the ratty, beer-stained hallway, I checked every room for a sign of my mom or Gabe, which is when I saw my mom, unconscious, on the floor, next to several beer bottles that were all glass. There were glass shards in her hair.

Looking back, I don't know what terrified me more, the sight of my mother so helpless, or the shadow behind that I knew belonged to Gabe.

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

' _Go away,'_ I signed shakily, one hand circled around my mom's wrist to feel her pulse. ' _Can you just leave us alone?'_

Gabe slurred something drunkenly which I couldn't quite make out, but still somehow made me shiver.

A second later, Gabe grabbed me by the arm and yanked me up. I flailed and somehow managed to kick him in the knee, but that just made Gabe even madder. Gabe stumbled over the carpet that smelled too much like cigarette smoke and entered the kitchen, his iron grip never faltering for one second.

Closing my eyes tightly, waiting for the blow to come, I curled into a ball, putting my arms protectively over my head and crawling over to the corner. Gabe was rummaging around in the drawers for something.

Finally, I felt vibrations through the floor, coming towards me. Gabe was coming. Squeezing my eyes shut tighter and bracing myself for a blow, I was completely surprised when a thin line of pure pain traced itself across my forearm.

My eyes flew open and I saw Gabe standing over me with a bloody knife. My right arm throbbed with pain and I slowly brought it down to examine it.

Sure enough, there was a thin line of red. Blood.

And Gabe was standing over me holding the knife.

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

The years continued in like that, Gabe waiting until my mom was either unconscious or at work to cut me, bruise me, hurt me. He was smart, too, and realized that I didn't care what pain came my way. So he threatened my mom instead. He told me that if I ever told her the truth about the various cuts, bruises and scrapes that I acquired daily, he'd beat her until she was within an inch of life.

So I stayed quiet. I kept my fingers still and my eyes devoid of all emotions. I withdrew myself from the world, because there was no use in trying to tell someone when I knew they'd get hurt. I couldn't let the people I loved get hurt.

Not because of me.

When I was seven, it all started. All of the abuse, the kicking and punching and beating and whipping and cutting. The scene that you just read? It was the first time Gabe had ever truly abused me.

When I was eight, it got more intense. More cuts, more bruises. More drunken words, more beer bottles, more pain and more blood. I don't remember much from that time, mostly because I spent about half of every day unconscious from pain or blood loss.

When I turned nine, Gabe told me I was a 'big boy'. He made me wash his dishes, do his laundry, basically be a slave to him until my mom came home. Then _she_ was the slave, and I was the broken toy tossed into the corner.

On my tenth birthday, my mom was working double shifts. So Gabe took the liberty of giving me a birthday present, which was torture. He didn't just beat me and cut me that day. He used water, my favorite thing, to hurt me. He would shove my head under the water and leave it there, until my face turned blue and I started inhaling the water. Then he'd force my head out and, after I could breathe again, he'd push my head back under.

When I was eleven, I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to die. I wanted to simply vanish from the world. Maybe if I ran away it would work, I would be free, but I already knew it was stupid. How would a deaf and mute kid survive on his own?

And so I thought about suicide.

Gabe had a collection of kitchen knives, ranging from sharpest thing ever to dull, if he ever wanted to hear me try to cry out in pain. I often snuck glances at the sharpest one when I was washing the dishes, cooking Gabe breakfast and lunch, or just walking through the kitchen.

But Gabe wasn't stupid, and he liked me as his playtoy. So he took the knives and put them somewhere where I never found them. So suicide - at least by knife - was out of the question.

The fact still remained that our apartment was on the seventh floor - high enough for me to jump out of the window and die.

So Gabe barred the windows and locked them so I could not get out.

I turned twelve on the day where I simply could not take it anymore and I just tried to drown myself.

I nearly succeeded, too. The breath was leaving my lungs, the life was leaving my eyes, and I was happy, happier than I had ever been. Away from Gabe. Away from the torture, the abuse, the neglect. Away from all of it.

And then my mom found me, forcing my head under the water in the bathtub, kneeling on the hard tile floor.

 **Well, this chapter is pretty dark. But he's only twelve, remember, and I'm doing a prologue #2 next to show the rest of his life before the main storyline.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Two years later…**

 **I'm back! Okay, lots of people said I should change my formatting and I tried, believe me. So if this format is worse review and tell me. And every ten reviews I get means another chapter, so review, people!**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson the Blood of Olympus would be so so so so much better than it is now. Anyways, enjoy!**

Percy POV

A new school. One far, far away from where we had been. One called Goode High.

A hearing school.

No matter how many times I had protested, my mom had told me that I had to go. My stepdad, Paul Blofis, worked there as English teacher. Hooray.

' _Mom, you know how bad I do at hearing schools.'_ I signed. She interpreted fast, for someone who learned sign language as a second language. Plus I signed really fast, as ASL was my first language.

"I know honey, but you have to go," my mom said, her head turning towards me. She was busy helping my younger sister, Sophie, get ready for school.

Sophie had dark hair and dark eyes that were a mystery. My mom had brown hair and hazel eyes and Paul had brown hair and blue eyes. In fact, out of all of our family, Sophie looked most like me, with messy dark hair and dark eyes.

I had green eyes, but still.

She bounced up and down on her feet and signed, ' _Please, Percy? I'm going to go right across from you!'_

I laughed and ruffled her hair. _'Alright, little tiger, I'll go.'_

She bounced on her feet and smiled. "I did it, Mom! I did it!"

I studied her lips and was able to make it out. ' _Wait, you two planned this?'_ I signed. Sophie nodded and my mom rolled her eyes in exasperation.

I rolled my eyes too. ' _Sophie, how dare you trick me like this.'_ I signed, putting on a mock-betrayed expression.

' _Percy Jackson, I don't care if you're my big brother, I am ten years old and in seventh grade, I can do what I want.'_ She signed.

About her grade level. Sophie is supposed to be in fifth grade, but she is incredibly smart, so she skipped two grades and may skip another.

I stuck my tongue out at her and she drew herself up to her full height, which was actually amazing. She was almost as tall as I was, and I was sixteen while she was ten.

' _Percy you know I can fight, you saw what I did to Elliot.'_ She signed, cracking her knuckles after signing.

I rolled my eyes, remembering. Elliot was another sixteen-year-old kid in our old neighborhood who had enjoyed teasing me. He had been bullying me one day, Sophie had stepped out in time to hear him, and the next thing I knew, Sophie was scrubbing the road, and Elliot's face was the mop.

She punched my arm playfully, but I couldn't help wincing. Sophie was incredibly strong. (A/N: Sophie is pretty much my BFF but Sophie has _my_ name*winks*)

My mom checked her watch and shoved Sophie and me out the door. ' _You two are going to be late, hurry up!'_ She signed.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and pulled Sophie after me out the door. She pushed my arm off and signed, ' _I am perfectly capable of walking by myself.'_

I let go and kept walking, following a mob of high school and middle school students. Sophie hurried a bit and soon began chatting with a blond-haired, grey-eyed boy who looked about her age, but still had a Goode Middle School thing on his backpack.

I kept my head down until I felt someone punch my arm. I winced; Sophie had punched the exact same spot earlier.

I looked up and saw the familiar face of Nico Di'Angelo. He was my cousin and also lived in New York. I scolded myself mentally; how could I have forgotten that?

Another girl came up to us and I recognized her immediately: Thalia Grace, another one of my cousins.

' _Percy! Where've you been?'_ Nico signed. A word about my cousins: they are amazing so they learned sign language to be able to talk with me.

I rolled my eyes. ' _Alive.'_

Thalia signed, ' _No you dumbass, literally, where have you been?'_

I sighed and signed, ' _With Gabe. LA.'_ (A/N: I know Percy is supposed to live in NY with Smelly Gabe, but you see, I had to make him move there, so I made him live in LA.)

Thalia nodded. ' _We missed you. It was fun using sign language and driving Aunt Hera crazy though.'_

I rolled my eyes. ' _You two still enjoy doing that?'_

Nico nodded. ' _Are you going to Goode too?'_

I shrugged and signed, ' _Against my will, yes.'_

Sophie came back and studied Thalia and Nico. ' _Percy, who're these?'_ she signed. Right. Sophie, Thalia, and Nico didn't know each other.

Thalia studied Sophie and signed, ' _Percy, who's this?'_

I rolled my eyes again. ' _Thalia, this is Sophie, my younger sister. She's ten and is in seventh grade.'_

Thalia kicked at the road with her combat boot. ' _Yeah right she's in seventh grade.'_ She signed.

Before I knew it, Thalia was pinned down on the road and Sophie was holding her down. "First of all, who are you?" Sophie hissed. I squinted and was able to read her lips.

Thalia struggled but soon it became obvious that even she couldn't break free.

Thalia said something, I could see her lips moving, but I couldn't read them with Sophie's dark hair dangling in front.

Sophie tilted her head the way she always does when figuring out a problem. Finally, she shrugged and climbed off of Thalia. Then she said, "I'm Sophie, Percy's younger sister. And never ever _ever_ call me Soph or insult Percy in any way unless you're interested in your face becoming a mop."

I punched Sophie's arm and flung Thalia's backpack at Thalia.

' _We're going to be late for school, come on.'_ I signed. Thalia put her hands over her heart. ' _The great Percy Jackson is worried about being late for school?'_

' _Shut up.'_ I signed, kicking her shin.

Nico watched all of this happen, shaking his head and pulling both me and Thalia to school. Sophie had already run off to who knows where and was probably already in class.


	3. Just an author note, don't have to read

**Okay everyone just wanted to say something, thanks to littlepurpleninja for the idea of this story and a shoutout to The Arrowess for being so awesome and reviewing on all of my story. Have a cookie. (::)**

 **I forgot to put this in the first two chapters so here's an author note, you're welcome. I'll try to post another chapter tomorrow if my life doesn't interfere. I do piano and Chinese, and I just won a competition, so hopefully get some time off. Thanks for reading and please review! The more reviews I get the faster I update, so hopefully if you start reviewing I start updating faster than a drugged snail. Thanks to everyone for putting up with my extreme slowness and REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 3

**4** **th** **period: Lunch**

 **Does lunch count as a period?**

 **Whatever, on with the story and stuff!**

Thalia POV (I think Thalia is a strong female character and I admire that very much. Also, this is getting boring in Percy's POV)

I set my tray of food down at the same table where I always sit, with Jason, Piper, Nico and Leo. Before, it used to be Luke, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Nico, Leo, Hazel, Frank, and me, but Hazel and Frank had moved to California and Luke and Annabeth had abandoned us for the popular group.

Nico was already there, wrinkling his nose when he looked at his tray. I didn't blame him; I didn't eat anything at lunch either.

Soon, Leo made it out of the mess called the lunch line and walked over to join us. His curly dark hair was even curlier than normal, and he also had a tray full of the school 'food'. Me, I seriously doubted it was actually edible, but whatever.

Then I remembered Percy. Oh gods, where was he?

I scanned the lunchroom, cursing under my breath. Where the hell was he?

Finally, I spotted a mop of dark hair and sea-green eyes glinting nervously as he looked around the room. I sympathized; my first day here had been a mess.

I muttered something about finding someone and stood up, walking right up to him. His shoulders relaxed when he saw me and he followed me right back to our table.

Leo raised an eyebrow when he saw Percy. "Boyfriend?"

I turned scarlet and nearly choked. "Leo! He's my cousin and Nico's too!"

Percy must have read Leo's lips, because he was staring at me with an equally horrified expression.

Leo shrugged and scooted over to make room. Percy's eyes darted around nervously, as if scanning the entire room.

Leo said, "You going to sit down or what?" Percy was still busy looking around, so Leo went unnoticed.

Before I could intervene, Leo said again, "Are you going to sit down?"

"Leo!" Nico hissed. "He can't hear you; he's deaf! So shut up! He'll sit down, alright?"

Leo blinked, obviously surprised by the bombshell Nico dropped, and shut up.

I tapped Percy's shoulder to get his attention, and motioned for him to sit down. He nodded and sat down next to Leo and me.

Finally, Jason saved us by plopping down next to me. "How was Math?"

"Good. In a bad way." I replied. Piper came over and sat down-surprise!-next to Jason. The two of them were dating.

"So, who's the new guy, Thals? Is he your boyfriend?" Piper asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that? NO, he is not my boyfriend. He's my cousin."

Percy elbowed me in the ribs. I shot him an annoyed look until I realized Annabeth and Luke were standing over me.

"Luke, Annabeth." I said. Annabeth smiled sweetly and said, "Thalia! Who's the new kid? I was wondering if he wanted to join us instead of you losers." (A/N: This _is_ a Percabeth story! I will make Annabeth be less bitchy in a few chaps, okay?)

Percy watched her face in total conversation and signed, ' _Thalia, please tell her I said to shove her huge ego up her even bigger ass.'_

I stifled a laugh and repeated just that.

Annabeth arched and eyebrow and said coldly, "Fine. I hope you die in a hole."

(A/N: It is _killing_ me to make Annabeth so mean. I HATE MYSELF AND YOU ARE TOTALLY JUSTIFIED TO HATE ME AS WELL)

I couldn't resist. I replied pleasantly, "It would be better to die in a hole than be with you."

She whirled around and said, "Well at least I can _talk_ , unlike your little boyfriend there. Is he mute?"

Cold fury rose up in me. "For your information, he's deaf and he's my cousin. I remember how you used to be, Annabeth. And I know that I won't even talk to anyone who thinks that people who are different are losers. In fact, _you're_ the real loser here."


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone! It's me, back from the dead. Well, no. But this story got ten reviews. So here is another chapter. Sorry if it's crappy, I'm doing this in my room late at night and hoping Dad doesn't catch me.**

 **So here it is**

 **Oh wait! Disclaimer! Me no own Percy Jackson. Do you have to keep reminding me?*sniffle***

 **Annabeth POV**

"In fact, Annabeth, you're the real loser here." Thalia said, glaring at me. That barely registered compared to the glare the stunning green-eyed boy was giving me.

He was perfect in every way, with messy raven-black hair that looked in belonged in the dictionary under 'perfect'. His eyes had so many layers of pain and sadness, love and joy, waves of emotion, that I felt myself getting lost in them. His skin was perfect too, just the right shade of tan.

He looked at me and I felt my heart skip a beat. His eyes were just so so so so so so so so so amazing. They looked just like the sea.

Thalia gave me a cold glare. "Annabeth, Luke, just leave."

I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay, stay and talk with the black-haired boy. But Thalia was a master of the death glare, and soon I found myself shivering.

Luke pulled me away, back to the popular table. I shook my head and pasted my cheerful smile back on. Octavian and Calypso waved to us from their seats.

We chatted about random stuff for the rest of lunch, but my mind was still focused on the mysterious boy with the beautiful green eyes.

 **OMG, it's a linebreak.**

Annabeth POV

I was walking home from school alone. Luke and his gang of football players had 'business' to attend to. That's what Luke had said.

Soon, I was almost home and I heard a thumps coming from a nearby alleyway. I decided to check it out, because why not?

What I saw shocked me beyond belief.

Percy POV

Thalia and Nico had been picked up by their parents. I was walking home alone.

I turned the corner into the alleyway that was my neighborhood and tried to ignore the smell of trash. Since I was deaf, all my other senses were so much sharper and clearer. And my sense of smell...well, let's just say I didn't really want or need it in the alley.

Luke and his gang emerged out of the shadows, grinning evilly. I nervously backed up against a wall, my mind racing. Ten burly, fast, football players against me, an unarmed, defenseless, scrawny deaf kid. I had a bad feeling about how this would turn out for me.

Luke advanced first, striking like a snake and pinning me against the wall in a choke hold. I struggled, clawing at his hands with mine, but he held fast. My mouth opened as if to scream, but I knew that was impossible. I was a mute, born mute and always mute.

Someone from his gang stepped forward and took my from Luke. Luke punched me in the stomach and I screamed soundlessly, my throat in agony from the choke hold and my trying to make a sound.

The guy holding me dropped me on the hard, rough concrete. I felt a rock scrape my side and winced. Then a hard blow to my ribs made me try to scream again, weakly kicking and scratching at Luke.

Luke threw me against the wall of the alley and I again screamed without making a sound, agony floooding through every part of my throbbing body. Acid was sloshing in between my ribs; my back had been dipped in lava. Every molecule, scratch that, every ATOM of my body was hurting.

And then a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes came around the corner and saw us.

 ** _Well guys, that's it for now. Why is this thing in Italics?_**

 ** _anyways, no updates tomorrow because I have to play three soccer games and practice piano. So basically no free time at all. Everyone have a cookie because there are no updates tomorrow._**

 ** _Remember, the more reviews mean faster updates hopefully, unless life makes me do all sorts of stuff I don't wanna do. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until next time, peeps._**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey peeps! I know I said no updates today, but my brother's at his soccer game and I have some free time, Internet, and my iPad. So here's an update, it's mostly just a filler, but I thought since you guys have been awesome, here you go.**

 **Disclaimer: I *sniffle* don't own PJO. Must you keep reminding me?**

 **Annabeth POV**

"Luke!" I screamed. Luke paused, giving Percy one last kick and smiling at me. I felt sick.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked angrily, marching past him and kneeling next to Percy. Percy's eyes fluttered closed and I kicked Luke in the family jewels.

Luke growled at me, a feral, animalistic growl, and said in a dangerously low voice, "Annabeth, you don't want to be with this freak, do you?"

I hesitated. Luke was popular, sporty, and normal. Percy was unpopular, scrawny, deaf, and mute.

Why should I choose Percy?

Thankfully, while I thought, Thalia, Nico, and a dark-haired girl passed the alleyway. "Thalia!" I yelled. Thalia glanced into the alley and spotted Luke, Percy, me, and Luke's football buddies.

Thalia's eyes turned murderous and she called, "Nico! Sophie!"

The girl with dark hair, Sophie, and Nico came back. "Yeah?" Nico asked. Thalia pointed into the alleyway, and before I knew it, Sophie, Thalia, and Nico had pounced on top of Luke and were beating him into a pulp.

I stayed motionless, hoping that they would think I was neutral. Thalia, Nico, and Sophie the mystery girl really knew how to fight.

Finally, Thalia came over to me and knelt down next to Percy. He was bruised and battered all over, and a cut on his side was bleeding.

Thalia glared at me for a minute. "Well? Aren't you leaving?"

It took a minute before I realized Luke was awake too, waiting for my answer.

I wanted to stay, I really did, but the look in Luke's icy blue eyes was clear. _Leave or tomorrow you will be the one getting hit._

"I-I have to go." I stammered. Nico kicked Luke again for good measure, and came over to Thalia and Percy. Sophie slammed Luke against the wall, dusted off her shorts, and also came over to Percy.

I felt tears welling in my eyes as I ran out of the alley, grabbing my backpack and racing home, my thoughts still focused on Percy and his beautiful sea-green eyes.

Percy POV

I shifted and was immediately aware of how much it hurt. Every bone in my body ached; every muscle throbbed.

I opened my eyes and the bright light blinded me for a second. I was in my room, that I knew, lying on my bed. I gingerly felt my ribs and winced. Ouch.

I sat up, ignoring the spots of black in my vision, and remembered the last thing I saw before blacking out. Annabeth.

The door opened and Thalia came in, her back facing me and her dark hair wind-blown. She kept walking backwards until she stumbled into the bed and landed on me. I winced, she weighed a lot, especially on the leg that Luke had kicked.

She turned to face me and saw that I was awake. Her eyes lit up and she signed, ' _How are you feeling?',_ also yelling. "Nico! Sophie!"

' _Like I was ambushed on the way home and kicked around by Luke.'_ I signed, finger spelling Luke. Thalia rolled her eyes just as Sophie and Nico came running.

Sophie immediately crushed my ribs again in a hug, before I signed to Thalia, ' _Make her stop!'_ Thalia pulled Sophie off of me and I stuck my tongue out at her.

Nico signed, ' _We found you in an alley with Luke and Annabeth. Care to explain?'_

I rolled my eyes. ' _I was coming home and Luke just came out of the shadows with his gang. They beat me up, then I blacked out, but before I blacked out I saw Annabeth coming around the corner. No idea what happened next.'_

"Perseus Jackson, from today on I am following you home." Thalia and Nico said simultaneously. Sophie raised an eyebrow.

"So Percy, who is this mysterious Annabeth?" She asked, making sure to saw it slowly so I could read her lips.

' _Nobody. Someone I met at school.'_ I signed. My hand shook when I signed 'Nobody.'

She raised both eyebrows. ' _Believable, Perce, believable. I would've thought you'd be better at lying since you use your hands to talk.'_

I rolled my eyes. ' _Seriously? I'm fine, okay? And my hands are cold and stiff.'_ To make that more believable, I made my hands shake when signing 'cold and stiff',.

She rolled her eyes and left, signing something like _'Homework.'_

Annabeth POV

I felt terrible. Luke was my boyfriend, but I hadn't felt anything when he was getting beaten up by Thalia, Nico, and Sophie. Percy...he was a stranger, pretty much, but I had felt so, so angry when Luke was hurting him.

My feelings were everywhere, my head worrying about my popularity and my heart worried about Percy.

I slipped into the house, running upstairs and starting on my Math homework. School got my mind off of everything.

Everything...except for Percy.

There was stlil a tiny voice in my heart whispering, ' _Is Percy okay?'_

I found x for the second time and continued on my quest to find y, my mind coming up with variables and numbers and stupid answers. I coudln't focus!

I finally gave up and flopped down on my bed, staring at the ceiling and replaying the events from today over and over and over, swirling inside my head along with the guilt of leaving and the pain of seeing Luke, who I always thought was kind and gentle, hurt another innocent boy who did nothing, nothing except make me fall in love with him.


	7. Another one! Author note

**Hi everyone. I am going to be evil. I WILL NOT update until I have 20 reviews. I am so sorry, but I am now hiding from my brother who is trying to steal my computer. I WILL update tomorrow if we don't reach 20, but hopefully people update and you guys get a chapter today. Everyone have a cookie because I am being evil (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**


	8. Chapter 6

**Everybody guess what! I only got nineteen reviews *coughs and clears throat* but I will still update because I have nothing else to do. I know, my social life is pathetic. Anyways, I will give you all an okay ish chapter, but since I have, what, seventeen followers? REVIEW, PEOPLE. IT MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND AND IT MAKES YOU GET UPDATES FASTER. Expect no updates tomorrow because A) Tomorrow's Monday and B) I have piano class. But if you all are good and get me 20-25 reviews, you get a chapter on Tuesday. If you get me 25-30 reviews by the end of Tuesday, you get an extra chapter on Wednesday. You're welcome.**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **Me: Do I have to do it?**

 **Percy and Annabeth: *cracks knuckles* Yes.**

 **Me: But I don't want to!**

 **Percy: *uncaps Riptide***

 **Me: I surrender! I don't own PJO or HoO, there! Happy NOW?**

 **Percy and Annabeth: Yes.**

 **Okay, on with the story!**

 **Percy POV:**

 **Also, since I am so lazy, I have magically skipped time to the next morning at school.**

I met up with Thalia and Nico before I left for school. Sophie had magically teleported *read: driven off with some boy named Malcolm*, so it was just Thalia, Nico, and I.

' _So, Percy, what happened yesterday?'_ Thalia signed. ' _Uh nothing.'_ I signed back. She raised an eyebrow.

Nico stuck his hand in between us and, turning to face me so I could read his lips, said, "Thalia, not now."

I shot him a grateful look and smirked at Thalia. ' _Yeah Thalia. Not now.'_

She punched my arm and cracked her knuckles afterwards. I punched her back and signed, ' _O Great and Mighty Thalia, should we hurry up so we aren't late?'_

 _'No you dork, we should slow down so we are late.'_ Thalia signed back, rolling her eyes like 'Duh!'

Nico crossed his arms, pulling both me and Thalia to school by dragging our backpacks. Thalia and I, me being me and Thalia being Thalia, argued the whole way about why we should and should not hurry up.

Needless to say, we didn't hurry up. Nico dragged us there the whole way.

' _And now for the next scene in the Epic Ballad of Percy Jackson,'_ I signed, pausing dramatically. ' _Percy dies of boredom in homeroom.'_

 _'That we can both agree on.'_ Thalia signed.

And then, of course, I died of boredom in homeroom. Figuratively, otherwise this story would have no main character and Percabeth would be broken apart. And then the world would fall apart because PERCABETH IS WHAT KEEPS THE WORLD GOING, EVERYONE. PERCABETH IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

Annabeth POV

I slipped into homeroom just the tiniest bit late. Luckily, too, because I had a perfect attendance record that started in preschool. The only seat left was between Thalia, who hated me, and Percy, who also probably hated me.

I awkwardly slipped into the seat and tried to ignore the glare Thalia was giving me, and also trying to ignore the curious stare Percy was giving me.

Finally, Thalia's glare got too intense and I whirled around, saying in a low voice, "Will you please stop glaring at me!"

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that I have a perfect right to glare at you, as you led that asshole Luke right to Percy yesterday."

"No-no I didn't." I stammered. Did Percy think this too?

"Yeah, totally. Annabeth, you used to be my best friend. Don't you think I can tell if you're lying?"

I recoiled, stung by the 'used to be my best friend part.' Weren't we still friends?

And then I mentally slapped myself. OF COURSE we were no longer BFFs. Luke and I had left Thalia, Nico, Jason, Leo, and Piper for Octavian, Calypso, Reyna, Hylla, Will, Drew, and Rachel. (A/N: I had to make the popular group have a lot of people, and these were the first people that popped up in my head. So I am sorry if all of you like Rachel and Calypso and Will and Reyna and Hylla, but this is a list of people from PJO that I personally am neutral about.)

Thalia seemed to take my silence as an agreement. "So just-just stay away from Percy, okay? He doesn't need anymore abuse."

Percy leaned over, his shoulder accidentally brushing mine, and slapped Thalia's arm. He then started to make his weird gesture thingies, sign language, at her, and she snapped, "I just don't want you to keep getting hurt!"

He kept on making weird motions and Thalia's expression towards me softened, turning from boiling anger to shock to worry to surprise.

"Oh gods Annabeth, I didn't know. I'm so sorry, Percy just told me that you didn't lead Luke to him. Gods, I'm so sorry. But just-just don't hurt him, alright?" Thalia said, her eyes filled with genuine regret.

I turned away. She was right, if I was near Percy Luke would find me, find me and then torture Percy in front of me to hurt both me and him and Thalia and Nico.

"No. You're right, I should stay away from him and you. Luke will find me, wherever I am, and he'll hurt both of you for fun. He's a sick, twisted bastard and I hate him." I forced out.

"He's also your boyfriend." Thalia points out. I took a deep breath. "I'm going to break up with him."

"When?" Thalia asked. I mentally drew up my schedule. "As soon as I get home from school."

She nodded. "I'm be there with you."

 **It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a linebreak!**

 **Annabeth POV**

A/N: Break up scene!

I took deep breath. "Thals, you ready?"

"Are you kidding? I was literally born ready."

I walked up to Luke, who was chatting with Octavian. "Luke?"

"Yes?" He asked. I felt a waver of doubt. He sounded so kind, so sweet, just like the Luke I fell in love with. Thalia squeezed my shoulder.

I steeled myself and drew myself up to my full height, balling my hands into fists and tucking them by my side.

"Luke, I'm breaking up with you."


	9. Chapter 7

**O**

 **M**

 **G**

 **I got THIRTY three reviews! This is so awesome! And yes, I know thirty-three isn't really a lot but still! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!**

 **Everybody have cookies! And also, you are not actually supposed to get a cookie in real life, just virtual. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

 **Oh, and also, I have figured out that my chapters are crappy and short and they suck, so I'll try to make them longer for you, my precious readers. Also, expect less frequent updates because I have three school projects going on and a bunch of extra homework.**

 **P.S. Thanks to everyone for reviewing!**

 **Disclaimer: Still. Don't. Own. It. Stop. Telling. Me.**

 **Annabeth POV**

Luke's ice blue eyes sharpened with hatred and glinted with anger. "Why? Is it because of that incident yesterday with that freak? Why do you care about that useless nobody? He's a mutant freak! What does he have that I don't? You know, besides the fact that _I_ can hear and speak and he can't. What does he have?"

I set my shoulders into a straight line and fixed my eyes on him. "He is so much more than some deaf kid, Luke. Why can't you see that? He's kind, sweet, and he cares about me. More than I could say about you. So go fuck yourself or whatever bitchy whore will have you."

After I said that, there was a golden wave of relief washing down on me, and then I realized that I had been wanting to say that for a long, long time.

The once-domesticated monster of anger roared inside me, straining against its chains. I struggled to keep it down, then spat, "Luke, I don't know what I ever saw in you, but now, I know that it's gone. Tell the devil I said hey when you get back to where you're from, will you?"

Mu voice was cool, calm, and collected, the same voice I used whenever I answered teachers. Just to let out a tiny bit of the tidal wave of anger inside me, I punched him in the face with all the strength I could muster, then hissing, "Stay away from me and my friends, asshole."

Luke growled, a feral, deep growl, and I turned on my heel, marching back home, my backpack light on my shoulders.

 **Ohmigosh! It's a linebreak!**

Annabeth POV

I went home, satisfied and filled with a sense of relief. I had been bottling up my emotions for so long, and the breakup with Luke helped with that. Finally, some of the burning rage inside me had been used for a useful thing, instead of breaking pencils in my room. I had a whole pile of broken pencils.

I slipped inside, still grinning like a madwomen, and, lugging my backpack upstairs, started on my homework. I wouldn't let drama get in the way of school. I still had to get into an architect college and become an architect, after all.

I finished my essay that was due two months from now, but getting work down fast never hurt anyone. Then I started on my Science worksheet, getting halfway through before my phone buzzed.

I picked it up and pressed 'Answer'. "Yeah?" I asked, irritated. My science worksheet was almost done!

"Hey Annie, it's Thalia. Can you come over? Leo and Percy and Nico and I all need help on the math. Have you seen it yet?"

I flipped through the multiple math worksheets I had done before and spotted the one assigned today. Thalia was right, it was kind of tricky looking. Plus I could always finish my science there.

"Kay, I'll be coming over soon. See if you can get anyone else smart over there; I have a feeling I'm going to need help." I laughed. I could practically hear Thalia's death glare through the phone.

Then I hung up, shoving all my papers back into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder, stepping out into New York City rush hour, smoke clouding my vision a bit and my feet tracing the familiar path to Thalia's.

I got there within five minutes, although it still bothered me that I hadn't been there for months. Months when Luke, Octavian, Rachel, Reyna, Hylla, Calypso, Will, and I had been hanging out, gossiping about the 'losers' and generally being shitty bitches and douche bags.

 **(A/N: Sorry about the cursing, it's going to get better soon, I promise.)**

I knocked on the door and waited. Thalia came skidding around the corner, openeing the door and smiling. "Leo! Annie's here!"

Leo, his dark hair as messy as ever, came around the corner and tripped, landing flat on his face. Thalia raised her eyebrow. "Impressive, Leo."

He stood up, straightened his shirt, and yelled in my face, "Hi, Annabeth!"

I smiled and kicked my shoes off, walking in and dumping my bag on the floor, pulling out all my homework and heading to Thalia's den.

"Percy says this problem is impossible!" A female voice yelled. There was a loud bang and then a shrill scream. "Perseus Orion Jackson! Stop doing that!"

I looked at Thalia, who shrugged and stepped in. There was a dark-haired girl, Sophie, I remembered, trying to grab a hammer out of Percy's hands. Percy was hammering the table and loud bangs echoed through the house.

"My gods Percy, stop it! For someone who can't talk, you're SO FREAKING LOUD!" Thalia shouted, grabbing the hammer and shoving it into a random drawer. Percy looked at her with pleading sea-green eyes and Thalia narrowed her own electric blue eyes.

"Perseus Jackson, puppy-dog eyes will not help you. Annabeth is here, and she's going to help you. And Sophie, why aren't you helping?"

"I _am_!" Sophie snapped. "He just doesn't get it! I've been explaining the concept to him over and over and over and he still doesn't get it and I do and I'm freaking ten years old! Whoever this Annabeth is, she's got a job to do."

I raised my hand. "I'm Annabeth. And what do you mean by a 'job'?"

"This guy right here? He's an idiot. This concept is so simple! And he doesn't get it!" Sophie rolled her eyes.

"Sophie, none of us get it. Only you, and I seriously thing you would make a better 10th grader than all of us. Would you consider trading places?" Leo said. His eyes had dark circles under them.

She buried her head in her hands and groaned. "See what I mean? It's a simple concept, and they _don't get it._ "

"I've got this. You rest." I said, rubbing my hands together and pulling out my own math worksheet.

I sat down next to Percy and laid my sheet flat on the table, stealing his pencil and scratching out an equation under the first question.

"So you add these two-" I circled two numbers - "and then you multiply the sum by 13. That gives you the answer."

Percy stared at me, uncomprehending. It then dawned on me that he probably hadn't been able to read my lips.

I scribbled down what I had just said on a piece of paper, adding the question, the equation, and the answer. His green eyes narrowed for a minute as he examined the piece of paper, then he brightened and wrote something down. When he moved his hand away, the message he had written was short, in messy handwriting.

' _Thanks.'_

"You're welcome." I said, turning to face him so he could read my lips. He offered a ghost of a smile and then pulled his worksheet closer to him, solving another problem and showing me the paper, obviously asking if it was right.

I scanned the crisp white paper and nodded. He was a fast learner, just unable to hear when the teacher turned their backs. That was why he struggled.

Thalia showed me her paper and Leo showed me his. Nico came around the corner just as I nodded and turned back to my worksheet.

"What'd I miss?"

I patted the seat next to me for him to sit in and said, "Thalia called me over to help with math. So, you want help or..."

Nico's dark brown eyes still held suspicion, probably because of the way I had acted before, ditching them to be with the bratty popular group.

"Look, I'm sorry for leaving you guys, okay? I broke up with Luke, and I just want to be friends again." I pleaded. Nico still didn't look fully convinced but he sat down anyways and pulled an abandoned worksheet on the table towards him. 'Nico di Angelo' was scrawled on the blank for the student's name.

I showed him my method and he brightened, solving all the problems in under ten minutes. Percy was already done and starting on his science, Thalia was still halfway through, and Leo was in the bathroom.

By the time Thalia was finished, Leo was back and he had finished his math too. I had ignored Percy for a while, instead supervising Leo and Thali on their essays. But when there was a thunk from behind me, I whirled around, eyes narrowed.

I relaxed when I realized it was just Percy banging his head on the table. Then I realized that it was because of the homework.

I scooted closer to him and pulled out my science, lifting his head off of the table and writing down, " _Percy, I'll help.'_

He scribbled down 'Thanks' and then revealed his science homework. I took it and compared it to mine, quickly realizing what was wrong.

"You didn't understand this part, did you?" And with that, I explained the whole worksheet to him and he brightened, his eyes sending an unspoken and unwritten message: Thanks.

Soon, it was four in the afternoon and we were done with all homework. "If you'd like, we can hang out at my house." I offered. Thalia heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods, Jason is home with Piper tonight. You do not want to be within a fifty-feet radius of one of their make-out sessions."

I led the way to my house, wrinkling my nose at the smoky smell of the air. Horns honked and people shouted at each other until my ears felt like they were bleeding.

Everyone was covering their ears except for Percy. _Duh, he's deaf,_ I thought.

We finally made it to my house and I opened the door, revealing a very, _very_ angry stepmom.

 **And that's a wrap! Well, I have to go work on my project now, so I'll try to update tomorrow, but for now this is it. Enjoy and review, people. Bye!**


	10. Chapter 8

**Everybody, just wanted to THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING AMAZING. I have thirty-nine reviews right now, and I am just amazed. I know that some stories have over a thousand, but this story has more reviews than all my other stories combined.**

 **So anyways, cookies for everybody! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

 **So anyways, I have made some progress on my projects and have decided to make a schedule for all my fanfics and update them on the days they are supposed to be updated. This story will be updated (hopefully) on Wednesday and Saturday and maybe Friday. I may update more frequently if I feel like it, or I may just skip some days. You never know.**

 **Anywho, thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, or favorited, I LOVE YOU GUYS!**

 **P.S. Has anyone here listened to the song 'Human' by Christina Perri? You really should, it fits the theme of 'demigod' so well.**

 **Disclaimer: My birthday's coming up, so I can always hope.**

 **Annabeth POV**

My stepmom, Helen, glared at me, her warm brown eyes seeming to say, 'Oh, you are in _trouble_ , young lady."

"Helen!" I said cheerfully, masking all evidence of guilt in my innocent smile. "My friends and I were working on some homework at Thalia's."

Helen's dark hair was in a bun, a single loose strand caressing the nape of her neck. She pinned the strand back into her perfect bun and regarded me carefully.

"Alright Annabeth, come on in. Are your friends staying for dinner?"

I sent a nervous glance at Thalia before forcing a laugh to come out of my tangled throat. "I'm not sure, they might."

"Well, I need to know before five so I can make enough dinner for everyone who stays, alright? You guys can have the den, and try not to mess up your dad's models, Annabeth. I need to go pick up Bobby from his soccer game, so I'll be back soon." Helen said, picking up her car keys and walking off, keys clinking against her silver bracelet.

Thalia immediately said, 'Can I stay? Jason and Piper...normally their make-out sessions are longer than they should be, but thankfully I know that they won't get, er, intimate with each other."

Nico (had to respelled that TEN TIMES before spell check got the hint that Nico isn't Nick) nodded in agreement, his black jacket a stark contrast to his pale skin.

"I'll stay, probably, Aunt Rosa's working late tonight." Leo said.

Percy was silent as usual, and made a couple hand motions. I was definitely going to have to learn sign language. Sophie translated for him. "Percy says that Mom's going to the movies with Dad tonight, so we can stay, if you'd like. We can also go home, Percy actually knows how to cook."

Percy elbowed Sophie in the ribs and Sophie cracked her knuckles, which I actually found slightly intimidating. Gods, her knuckles were loud.

Thalia kicked off her shoes and Nico did the same, leaving them by the door and heading in. I kneeled down and unlaced my gray sneakers, pulling them off and arranging them neatly by the door. Percy took off his as well, and Sophie just kicked off her Nikes without even bothering to untie them. Leo did the same, and we all troooped into the den.

"Movie?" I asked. Thalia shrugged, Leo and Nico yelled, "YES!", Percy stayed silent, and Sophie shrugged too.

"Just don't make it Disney. Something gory and bloody, probably." Thalia and Sophie said at the same time. They looked st each other and burst out laughing.

Leo shook his head. "How will I deal with _two_ Thalia's? One is hard enough!"

Nico brushed his dark hair out of his eyes and elbowed Leo. "Thalia's a great person, Leo!"

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "I prefer to be known as the girl who hates Barbie, Disney, princesses, flowers, light, happiness, and optimistic people, thank you very much."

"Totally proving my point." Leo muttered under his breath. "Cheery girl. Ray of sunshine, that one."

I sensed that things were about to get ugly, so I asked, "Since you want a gory and bloody movie, we can do The Hunger Games, maybe?"

"No! Do Mockingjay!" Sophie yelled. I shrugged, plucked the DVD off of the shelf, opened the plastic container, and inserted the disk into the DVD player. The menu came up, and Thalia claimed the remote. Before I could snatch it, though, she went to settings and turned on subtitles. At first I wondered why, until Percy exhaled and relaxed.

Duh! Percy's deaf! And he can't read lips on a screen! Stupid, stupid, stupid, Annabeth. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Sophie shot Thalia a grateful look, snatched the remote, and pressed play. We spent the next few hours appreciating the fact that A) We were not watching the worlds lamest movie ever where a princess sat in a tower and cried for help, and B) We were all friends again and the popular group couldn't hurt any of us anymore.

Katniss yelled, "Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!" On-screen. I tuned her out and began puzzling about the tangled mess of weirdness that was my life.

I had broken up with Luke, thank goodness, but my feelings for Percy...I didn't really understand them. I loved the way his eyes twinkled whenever he smiled, which was rare unless he was around Sophie or Thalia, and I loved the way he always seemed so lively and optimistic even without uttering a single word. It was magical, really, the way he drew people to him like a magnet.

Before I knew it, the movie was over, and Helen was yelling from upstairs, "Annabeth! Bobby and Matthew are home!"

I groaned and got off of the warm couch, my bare legs complaining about the cold. I stretched, and then went to go get Bobby and Matthew, who raced into the den and yelled, "Thalia!"

"Can we play?" Bobby asked eagerly. "No." Thalia grumbled, scooting in closer next to Nico.

Wait just a moment...next to Nico?!

"Thalia!" I exclaimed. "What is it between you and Nico?"

Nico turned beet red, then scarlet, then crimson. His face was like a tomato. Thalia turned pink and spluttered, "What do you mean?"

"Oh! You two are dating!" Sophie yelled at the same time I shrieked, "Thals is dating!"

Me and Sophie high fived, complete with explosion, and then turned to face Thali and Nico. "Since when do you two like each other? Death Breath and Pinecone Face?"

"Shut up Wise Girl." Nico muttered, using the old childhood nicknames we had given each other.

"Thalia and Nico, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G." Sophie singsonged. Leo joined in, and soon the room was filled with chants of Thalia and Nico.

"Thalia! I want to play!" Matthew tugged on Thalia's arm and made a pouty face.

"No Bobby, no Matthew. Thalia the Great and Mighty is tired and wants to sleep. Please go bother that guy over there." Thalia yawned, pointing at Percy.

"Person!" Bobby yelled in Percy's ear. Percy did nothing.

"Why doesn't he respond?" Matthew asked, after screaming in Percy's ear twenty-one times.

Oh no, I hand't expected this. How do you just tell your little brother that your best friend's cousin is deaf and mute? I was pretty sure the answer wasn't on Google.

I supposed that there wasn't exactly a way to, so I decided to be blunt about it.

"Matthew," I began gently. "He's deaf."


	11. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone! I got forty reviews so here is another chapter. But you guys should all be very proud of pjofangurl because she had to go through eleven hours of school, homework, Chinese, and piano. Pjofangurl did not let this stop her from doing FF, though, so all of you should be very proud of her and maybe review. Thanks peeps!**

 **OH RIGHT YEAH, DISCLAIMER. WHY IS THIS THING IN CAPS LOCK? Okay, it's gone now. Anyways, I wished I owned PJO, but I am not a middle-aged man named Rick Riordan, so unfortunately, I don't own it. Starts crying.**

 **Annabeth POV**

Matthew looked at me, his warm brown eyes uncomprehending. "What does deaf mean?"

I groaned and muttered, "It means you're an idiot." Then I spoke louder. "It means he can't hear you, so you can't annoy him to death like you do me. Lucky him."

"Why can't he hear us?" Bobby asked. "He has ears."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Yes, he has ears. No, they do not work properly. That is why he can't hear you. Any questions?"

Matthew raised his hand and I suppressed a laugh. "Matthew, this isn't school. You don't have to raise your hand if you don't want to."

"But I want to!" He whined, sticking out his tongue at me and keeping his hand in the air. Little brothers suck.

Thalia pointed at him. "Yes?"

"Why can't he hear?"

Thalia put her head in her hands and said, "Annabeth will explain to you."

I huffed. "How am I supposed to know why he can't hear? I just met him a few days ago! Nico, you explain. You're his cousin."

Nico punched my arm. "I don't know why either, it's just that something was wrong with his inner ears when he was born. No great big mystery!"

Percy lightly tapped Nico's shoulder and did more weird hand waving. I was definitely going to have to learn sign language.

Nico said, "Percy said to say that he also can't talk."

Bobby's eyes widened in wonder. "Really?"

"Uh, yeah, stupid, otherwise he would've said so himself, idiot." Thalia grumbled. "Why does it seem like those two have no brains?"

Matthew inhaled sharply. "Oh yeah! If he could talk he would've said that! I'm a GENIUS!"

Thalia and Sophie both put their heads in their hands. Nico and Leo stared at Matthew like, 'Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaah.' As for me? I groaned and slammed my hand down on the table.

"Bobby, Matthew, I'll turn on the TV for you if you don't bother us. We're going to my room." I say, exasperated. Bobby and Matthew will never leave us alone.

"But I still have a question!" Bobby whined. I rolled my eyes and pressed the power button on the TV. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong with the guy who can't talk?" Bobby asked.

Wrong thing to say, Bobby. Wrong thing to say.

Thalia's electric blue eyes flash dangerously in the dim light from the setting sun outside the windows. Her expression turnes into one of cold fury and burning anger. Nico's dark eyes glitter with a cold light as they both stand up together.

"There is absolutely _nothing_ wrong with him." Thalia hissed dangerously. Nico let out a low growl and together they advanced slowly on my terrified little brothers.

I rushed out and defended Bobby and Matthew with my arms. "Thals, Nico, they're only seven. They don't know anything. Don't hurt them, they didn't mean anything by that." I managed to say. In truth, I was terrrified. If you get Thalia Grace and Nico Di Angelo on your bad side, I wouldn't plan on staying out of the hospital.

Thalia's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she sat back down, tugging Nico along with her. Nico still looked like he was about to murder somebody with his bare hands, but he managed to stay still and not move.

I sat back down too, remembering what I had done the first day Helen and Dad had become a couple. Sit stay look pretty, Annabeth. Act like a dumb blonde because you have to. Sit stay look pretty sit stay look pretty sit stay look pretty _sit stay look pretty_.

Because if I didn't, I would get in trouble. If I didn't, my father would have some issues with me. And by some issues, I mean probably a grounding and screaming that it was all my fault my mother left my father, all because I had ADHD and dyslexia. All because of me, the problems were all because of me, the unplanned child of Athena and Frederick Chase.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped until realizing it was Percy. His sea-green eyes seemed to search my boring gray ones, the worried look in them clearly expressing the question: ' _Are you okay?'_

 _No, I was not okay._ That was what I felt. But I had to sit stay look pretty, didn't I? Sit stay look pretty.

He fumbled around on the table for his homework, grabbed a pencil, and scribbled on the back of the sheet, ' _You okay?'_

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, my saliva getting sticky in my dry throat. I nodded and managed a strangled, "I'm fine."

And then I felt guilty, because no matter what I had gone through, Percy had to have gone through worse. I might have ADHD and dyslexia, but he had so much more. He was deaf, for gods sake, and he was a mute. Who cared what I had gone through? I had once heard the saying: If we all took our problems and tossed them in a pile with everyone else's, we would grab our problems back as fast as possible.

Anyways, life was good now, wasn't it? Helen may not actually love me as a true daughter, but I knew that she loved me in her own way. I had two idiot stepbrothers, good grades in school, a loving father, and good friends. What more could I ask for?

The answer? Nothing.

But I bet Percy could ask for way, way more.

Percy POV (surprise!)

Annabeth's gaze became far off and her gray eyes began displaying pain and memories. I knew that she needed something to anchor her back to the real world. How did I know? I had breakdowns a lot, and physical contact was one of the few things that actually helped.

I lightly touched her shoulder and she jumped. I pulled back, worried, until she relaxed again and looked at me.

I grabbed my math homework and a pencil and scrawled on the back of the sheet: "You okay?"

She nodded, but her eyes still held the pain. Slowly, as I stayed there looking at her, the rough, sharp edges of the pain inside her softened into peace.

I kicked Thalia to get her attention and signed, ' _Thalia, is Annabeth okay?'_

Thalia glanced at Annabeth and nodded at me. ' _Why wouldn't you think she's okay? She's smiling.'_

Then Thalia smiled wickedly and whispered something to Annabeth. I hated when people did that. I hated when they used the fact that I couldn't hear them to their advantage, but from the way Annabeth reacted, I knew it wasn't something about me.

Annabeth looked at Thalia like, ' _Are you crazy?'_ And shook her head.

Thalia made a puppy-dog eyes face at Annabeth and Annabeth rolled her eyes, nodding. Thalia beamed and tugged me and Annabeth into another room.

' _What?'_ I signed. Thalia smiled and put her finger across her lips.

' _You two need to get to know each other. I'm going to go back outside, you two have fun!'_ And after signing that and saying that, she disappeared out the door.

I stared at Annabeth awkwardly and then scribbled down on a pad of paper, ' _Hi.'_

Gods it was so annoying not to be able to talk sometimes.

She nodded and said something really fast. I wasn't able to read her lips and wrote down, ' _Can you talk slower?'_

Annabeth shrugged and repeated what she had said. I concentrated and made out, ' _Tell me about yourself._

Damn Thalia, she knew that I hated when people asked me that. What was there to tell? All people see in me is a deaf and mute kid who's stupid. Why should I tell them about me? People only see the faults in others, not the perfections.

Not that there was anything perfect about me, of course. I was useless. Stupid. A loser. The same words engraved in my arms were engraved in my mind as well, especially the memory of how I got them.

 _The biggest kid in the group stepped forwards with a wickedly sharp silver knife, which glinted dangerously in the sunlight. I struggled, but being a thin, underfed ten-year-old against five burly teen linebackers, I didn't stand a chance._

 _They held out one of my arms and the biggest one made a tiny slit in my skin. Pins and needles pricked at my arms and a tiny bolt of pain flashed through my body._

 _Then he cut deeper, pressing the tip into my skin, sending flames up my arm. He began to carve, embedding the word into my pale skin._

 _Useless._

 _I weighed and struggled under the many arms pinning me down, pain making me wild. Adrenaline rushed through me, filling me with a sense of panic, but the pain drowned everything else out._

 _When the leader was done, they released me and left me on the hard asphalt, bleeding as I examined the word they had left in my flesh._

 _Useless._

I shook myself as a cool hand landed on the place where the first word had been carved. Useless. I remembered it ever clearer than I ever had.

I immediately jerked away, memories crowding my head. I had a fragile grip on my mind right now.

Annabeth looked at me with worried gray eyes as I inhaled sharply, pressing my lips together to keep from screaming, silently of course. She touched my arm again, her finger accidentally tracing the 'U' of the useless.

I stumbled away, darkness clouding my vision for a second. I was hyperventilating, and my heart was beating too fast. I was panicking, trying to get away from the knife, away from the pain.

And then the hand was back, this time tracing the 'S'. I backed away, and Annabeth follows, saying something, but I was too scared to read her lips. I couldn't focus. I couldn't do anything. The world was spinning. Why was the world spinning?

I was on the ground before I knew I, cold hardwood floor against my hands. Annabeth was kneeling next to me, pulling up my sleeves. No. No no no no no no no no no no. I was still hyperventilating, the world turning blurry. I batted at her hands weakly as I began to lose the fight with the darkness.

The last thing I saw was Annabeth's expression of shock as she saw the scars on my arm.


	12. Chapter 10

**I am dead. Dead. I am a dead girl walking. I promise. I HAD TO DO CHINESE TODAY AND PIANO AND HOMEWORK AND A PROJECT!**

 **Anyways, I'm starting a new story called Love Story, which will be about Percy and Annabeth as actors in a love story movie. Read it if you want to!**

 **Disclaimer: I'm still saving up.**

 **Annabeth POV**

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster. I read all those words and more on Percy's arms. They were thin, but they were stark white against his tan skin.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

I felt tears stinging my eyelids as I stared at his arm. The inside of his forearm had cuts and bruises all over, and plenty of pale white scars standing out against his skin.

I felt a huge lump in my throat as I swallowed, the image of his scarred arm imprinted on my retinas. What kind of person could do something like this to an innocent human?

Who could ever hurt someone as sweet, as kind, as caring and lovable and loyal and lively as Percy? What kind of fucking asshole would do that?

 **(A/N: There was a reason I rated this T. Sorry about the cursing, but it was the only thing I could think of besides filthy rotten pig and that sounds stupid.)**

I gently turned his arm around and gasped.

There was a crisscrossing web of scars there as well, some thick and angry and others thin and pale. I had never seen anything like this, so much pain and sadness masked beneath a thin veil of happiness.

Who could stand so much pain? I knew myself that if I were in Percy's position, I probably would've committed suicide a long, long time ago.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

I blinked hard, trying to get the image out of my brain, but it was no use. The picture seemed firmly rooted in the center of my eyelids.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

I had been called stupid a few times in first grade, when my ADHD and dyslexia were wreaking havoc on me. But...useless...freak...monster...

Nobody deserved to be called those things. Nobody deserved to be abused. And nobody deserved anything like this tangled spider web of scars on Percy's arm.

Certainly not Percy.

Now, the tears, the burning hot tears, wre threatening to spill over. I wanted to cry. I wanted to lay my head on Percy's chest, which was no doubt scarred as well, and cry. I wanted to break the dam and let the tears flow. I wanted to do that so, so badly.

I wanted to scream and yell and cry. If I had ever had any belief, however faint, that good things happened to good people, it had been extinguished now. Those scars were anything but good, and Percy was anything but bad. If there was any sort of god, they were probably having a good laugh right now.

I took the pad of paper Percy had been writing on and ripped it to pieces, watching the torn pieces of paper flutter down to the hardwood flooring with a savage feeling of pleasure.

I wanted to destroy. I wanted to burn, burn the world down and watch the flickering flames rise higher and higher until they could match my anger.

It felt like hot coals were glowing in my chest. It felt like there was a tidal wave of acid surging through my body.

I let out a guttural cry and slumped forward, the tears spouting out of my eyes as I squeezed them shut, not wanting to see the white letters engraved on Percy's arm.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

And then I stood up and grabbed a pencil, snapping it half with a clean break. The jagged edges of the pencil matched how I was feeling: broken and angry and ready to snap.

I took another pencil, then another, snapping them over and over until the boiling rage inside me cooled slightly. By the time I was done, I had several splinters in my fingers and I was breathing heavily.

I clenched my hands into fists, my sharp nails digging into my palms. I looked down again.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

And here I was, thinking that my life was messed up. Me, with my slightly strange stepmother, a distant father, and two stepbrothers. At least I had a family who loved me.

Well, Percy did too, but he...he had all those scars, countless white lines streaking across otherwise perfect skin. And the bruises...flaring purple and bright red.

All the marks of pain and sadness scattered across a broken body.

No one could deserve that.

But it still happened.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster.

I bit my lip to keep from screaming and tasted blood.

Finally, I gave up, and snatched a pillow off of the couch in the room and attacked it. When I was done it had several holes leaking feathers.

I took a deep breath, my lungs filling with air. In, out. In, out. In, out. In, out. In, out. Calm, Annabeth. You are calm. There is nothing wrong. You are calm.

And then I stiffened. There _was_ something wrong and it was the scars, the thin white lines marring perfection, cracks and flaws in a beautiful, perfect person.

Percy's eyes fluttered open and he looked at me, confused. Then he noticed the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up.

He frantically pulled them back down and scooted against the wall, his eyes wide. The meaning of the roiling storm of emotion raging behind those eyes was clear: How much did you see?

"Everything." I said, my voice ragged. His eyes widened, obviously horrified, and he shook his head. The meaning was also clear: Don't tell anyone.

"I have to!" I said. "You can't just...just go on like this! It doesn't matter how strong you are, your'e only human! This...this isn't safe! You're going to get seriously hurt one day!"

He shook his head, found a pencil and a scrap of paper, and scribbled, 'My mom already has enough to deal with. I can't add this to her load.'

My eyes widened. What kind of person could bear all this pain, just so their parents won't be burdened?

"I...you...you have to! She would want to know!" I exclaimed. I just couldn't understand. How selfless would someon have to be to take all this pain without complaining just because they didn't want to burden their parents?

"If you don't, I will!" Came an angry voice from the doorway. Sophie stood there, her eyes burning with anger. "Perseus Orion Jackson, you can't just say that you don't want to burden Mom! I could say I didn't want to burden you by telling you I'm dating!"

Percy sat there for a minute like he had been shocked, and then he jumped up. His hands moved rapidly, so quickly I got dizzy looking at them.

"Geez, Percy, he's awesome, okay? He won't hurt me! Promise! His name is Malcolm! He's my age, yes!" Sophie said.

Malcolm?

"Wait wait wait." I said. "Malcolm? What's his last name?"

"Chase." Sophie said.

"Your'e dating my brother!" I exclaimed.


	13. Chapter 11

**I'm back! Sorry for not updating, *dodges knife*, but life sort of yelled at me, "Pay attention!" So I had to do stuff. My piano is just getting worse and worse, my Chinese is getting harder, projects are coming in faster, I may have forgotten to do my homework, and I am just overwhelmed right now.**

 **So I owe you all a big fat apology of apology ness and I just hope you all forgive me. P.S. Have any of you watched Rise of The Guardians? You totally should, it's awesome.**

 **Anyways, I don't own PJO or HoO, which is sucky, but you know, that's life.**

 **Here's your chapter, sorry its' crappy. Forgive me, but I slapped this together in less than ten minutes. I just thought you all deserved an update at least so the story will continue.**

Annabeth POV

I still couldn't believe it. My little brother was dating somebody.

"So when did you two get together?" I asked. Sophie blushed. "Um...about a week ago. He...uh...asked me out to the dance."

I clapped. "Congrats! Nice to know Malcolm can actually get a girl."

"Annabeth!" Helen called.

"Coming Helen!" I shouted. "Hey Sophie can you explain to Percy exactly why he has to tell you guys' mom? I have to go."

I hurried out of the room and into the kitchen, where Helen was waiting. "So, is anyone staying here for dinner?"

I gave her an apologetic smile. "I didn't ask, sorry. Here, I'll do it now."

I went into the den, where Thalia, Nico, and Leo were struggling to entertain Bobby and Matthew.

"So, any of you staying for dinner? Helen needs to know so she can cook enough for anyone who stays. But if you dont' want to stay that's fine, I highly doubt Percy and Sophie are staying."

"Why?" Thalia asked, preoccupied with getting Matthew off of Nico's head.

"Well...uh...after you left us in that room, I asked him to tel me about himself and he just panicked and...I guess he fainted? Well, we went unconscious. Anyways, I rolled up his sleeves and, well, I think it's best for you to see for yourself."

Thalia nodded, prying Matthew off of Nico's poor skull and following me into the other room.

Percy's hands were moving like a whirlwind as he furiously signed one thing after another. Sophie was saying stuff like, "Mom would want you to!" "That wouldn't be burdening her!" "How can you say that?" Etc., etc.

Thalia marched over and rolled up Percy's sleeve.

Her electric blue eyes grew wide when she saw the assortment of crisscrossing scars streaking across the skin on his arms. "Percy?" Her voice cracked.

Percy POV

I winced. Stupid panic attack. ' _Uh, Thals, this wasn't all Luke, okay? Most of it was the kids at my old school. Nothing to worry about.'_

Wrong thing to say.

' _Perseus Orion Jackson how dare you say this is nothing to worry about! Look at this! What kind of messed up, twisted, #%*!#*% (I have removed this from the story because younger readers eyes may start to bleed) would do this to a human being?'_

I winced. ' _Really Thalia?'_

 _'Stop avoiding my questions! Please tel me, who exactly did this to you?'_

I thought about that for a second. There were the jocks at my old school, Gabe, Luke, actually, if she wanted everybody who hated me, we could be here for a week.

' _Well, first it was the jocks at my old school. Then GABE saw the scars and he probably thought that those made it okay, so he started too. Then we moved here, Mom married Paul, and Luke came along too.'_ I signed.

Thalia just sat there staring at me.

Annbeth came over and took hold of my arm. It felt like tiny little bolts of lightning were shooting everywhere from where her fingers touched me.

Knock it off Percy! It's not like she would ever feel that way!

She showed Thalia the words they had carved into my skin and Thalia literally turned purple.

Thalia grabbed a supply of pencils and snapped them all in quick succession. Annabeth just stood there like she didn't care. Huh, I thought she would because she excels at school.

Instead, Annabeth rubbed soothing circles into Thalia's back as Thalia fumed.

"Um, we really should be going now." Sophie said and signed discreetly to me.

I nodded. _"I can make something at home, we really don't want to be a burden. It's fine.'_

Annabeth nodded, although I though I caught a flicker of disappointment in her gray eyes. Whatever. It was probably Sophie, not me.

Sophie and I went home and I somehow made sandwiches. We ate in silence, like we always do, A) Because I can't talk and B) Because there's nothing to say at dinner time.

When Mom and Paul came home, Sophie went right up to them and I knew there was shouting. I peeked in, and even if I couldn't read lips that well from a distance, the tensed shoulders and furrowed brows told me everything.

Sally POV (I need to have this in the story, it's important!)

Sophie came right up to me after Paul and I came home from our movie date.

"Mom, how could you?" She asked, her eyes burning. She was stiff and glaring at me like I was a piece of rotten, ten-day-old cheese or something.

"How could I what?" I asked, confused. I hadn't done anything except for go on a nice date with Paul. Was that now prohibited?

"You know what I mean! How could you marry that asshole Gabe? Do you know what he did to Percy? Do you know what the bullies at school did to Percy? Do you anything about your son?"

I blinked. "What did Gabe do?"

She rolled her eyes. "You really don't know? Fine. I'll tell you. So basically, when Percy was like six, he started getting bullied by these fifth graders. They used knives on him, Mom! They carved words into his arm! And Gabe joined in! All those years you could've divorced him, you could've at least stopped the pain! And now just look at him, Mom! Look at it!"

She shoved Percy's arm roughly towards me. Percy looked at me with green eyes so much like his father's, and rolled up his navy blue sleeve.

I gasped.

White lines ran all across his arms, some just jagged cuts lining the edges and some thick and angry. Some even spelled out words and some made pictures. It was all scars, just a mess of scars.

Useless. Stupid. Freak. Monster. I read those words and more (sounds like an ad) on his arms, outlined in bright white lines of scars.

"Oh no." I whispered, tears filling my eyes. "What did I do to you?"

He looked at me in confusion, until I realized that duh, he ciuldnt' read my lips if they were covered by my hair. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

' _What did I do to you?'_ I signed. He shook his head and signed, ' _You did nothing. It was Gabe and the bullies. It wasn't you.'_

"I could've divorced Gabe! I could've paid attention to you!" I said, fury filling me that I even touched that sick bastard (Gabe, not Percy)

"I'm sorry." I said clearly, facing him.

' _You have nothing to be sorry for.'_ He signed.

"Yes I do, I should'be at least insisted you wear short sleeves in the summer." I protested. He watched my lips in intense concentration and then he frowned at me, shaking his head.

' _You were busy and you had work to do. I couldn't add this to your load of problems.'_ He signed.

It was total and complete silence after that.

And then I began to cry, silent tears tracing their way down my cheeks as I looked at my poor little boy.

 **Um...so the last part was to emotional for me *hides*, as I am extremely uncomfortable around tears. Anyways, hope you at least liked it and didn't think it was crappy, me, I thought it was crappy, but whatever.**

 **I kind of wanted to do Sophie's POV on that but I didn't really know cause she's my OC, so...I dont' know. If you want to see Sophie POV review and tell me or PM me, I'm not picky.**

 **Thanks for reading cookies and bye!**


	14. Chapter 12

**Hi! Guess what! I have a new story! So anyways, here's another chapter. I managed to get my whole family out of the house except for me. I HAVE CHARMSPEAK! Just kidding.**

 **OMG I GOT OVER FIFTY REVIEWS ON THIS THING! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUYHANKYIUTHANKYOU!**

 **So anyways, here you go. Anomaly90 said something about Sophie POV, so I'm going to try that out this chapter. If you guys don't like it, review and tell me or PM me. I honestly don't care**

 **Here is your chapter. Enjoy. This took me 15 minutes. The quality should improve.**

 **Disclaimer: *sigh* Okay, okay, I don't own PJO.**

Sophie POV (I told you!)

Mom was silently crying and Percy looked really uncomfortable. Well duh, that was to be expected. Both Percy and I were extremely uncomfortbale around tears.

' _Mom it's fine, I'm okay now.'_ Percy signed.

I wanted to cry then too.

' _See? Theyr'e just scars now. No pain.'_

I burst into tears too.

Percy backed away slowly from both mom and me.

' _Guys, come on, I'm fine! Stop crying!'_ He signed.

I stopped crying and signed, ' _Percy, you weren't fine when it happened, were you?'_

He shook his head slowly, tugging at the sleeve of his shirt and pulling it back down over his arm. ' _Yeah, okay, you have a point, but now I'm fine and you guys don,t need to worry anymore.'_

Mhm.

Totally.

Yeah.

I took a deep breath. ' _Percy, what Mom means is that she should've been there for you when the bullies were hurting you, okay? She doesn't mean anything except for that. You really need to work on your people skills.'_

A ghost if a smile flitted across his lips. ' _C'mon, you know that my people skills are amazing!'_

I let out a small laugh. ' _Yeah...'_

And we spent the rest of the night watching Finding Nemo.

 **Time skip to the next day at school.**

(I have changed back to Annabeth POV because Sophie isn't in this scene.)

Annabeth POV

I walked to school with Thalia and Nico, who said they were going to pick up Percy soon. Malcolm had been driven by Helen to school, and apparently Percy's younger sister was riding with him too.

Thalia pushed her way through the mob of teens and came back with Percy, who still had on long sleeves even though it was August and a distinctly uncomfortable expression as he did more sign language. I sighed. Yup, I was going to have to learn sign language.

"Mhm...well Sophie had a point Percy, no, no no no. You can't blame yourself-Perseus Jackson what do you mean by that?" Thalia sputtered.

I have to admit, it's very amusing watching the one-sided conversation.

"WHAT? NO! STOP IT PERCY! NO NO NO NO!" Thalia shouted.

Nico raised an eyebrow and said, "Wait here, I'm going to go check it out."

He somehow managed to get past the crowd and went to go check on Thalia and Percy.

"WHAT!?" I heard Nico's voice shout. "WE'RE NOT-WHY WOULD YOU-WE HAVEN'T-WHAT?"

I sighed and shoved my way through.

Percy was bent over in silent laughter as Thalia and Nico shoited themselves hoarse at him.

I rolled my eyes. "Thalia, Nico, what did he do?"

"He said-we're not-why does he-?" Nico sputtered. His normally pale complexion was turning purple.

"He said we're dating when we clearly aren't!" Thalia said.

I smirked. "Nico didn't you ask Thalia to the dance?"

He turned red, then pale. "Oh, yeah. Right. Hey Thals, are you going with me? You never answered."

Thalia shrugged. "Sure, I'll go with you."

I sighed, "I was going to go with Luke. I'm not so sure if that's a good idea anymore."

Thalia grimaced. "Yuck. That asshole? I can't stand even saying his name anymore."

Percy came up to us and tapped Thalia on the shoulder and signed something. Nico translated for me.

"Percy told Thalia that since the middle schoolers are attending the dance too, his younger sister is going with Malcolm-wait what?" Nico broke off in the middle of it. "Percy! I didn't know your sister got a date!"

Percy blinked and signed something. Nico sputtered something like, "What the heck?" And turned to me. "Is Sophie dating your younger brother? What"s his name again, Mallard?"

I snorted. "Mallard? No, his name is Malcolm. And yeah, they're dating."

"Annabeth!" Luke's voice interrupted our conversation.

"Luke," I responded coldly, swinging my backpack around so it faced him. "I'm busy."

"Talking with these freaks?" Luke asked coolly. "Or should I say, _signing._ "

Thalia's eyes lit up with anger as she clenched her fists into balls.

Percy's eyes flitted from Luke to me to Thalia to Nico to his shoes. He ended up having a staring contest with the ground.

Nico tensed up and sidled a little closer to Percy.

And as for me? I stepped up a little closer to Luke. "Shut up," I said. "I don't want to listen to your slimy voice ever again."

"Why that's rude Annabeth," Luke said, grinning evilly. 'After all, I was about to ask you to the dance."

 **I bet you all know what happens next. Well anyways, sorry about how short it is, but I just couldn't work with any of the ideas I have because they have to take place later in the story, sorry. So here is the world's lamest , crappiest chapter ever, I am so sorry,**

 **I need ideas. Please, somebody review and help me. I need ideas for this story.**

 **I'm sorry, if I get no ideas and no help, I will not update. I want you all to have good chapters ofconsiderable length and not stuff like this crap. So help me.**

 **Please.**

 **Bye cookies.**

 **:-(**


	15. Chapter 13

**This is idea from Anomaly90 and will be combined with an idea from Princess Milly. Thanks to both of you! And cookies too! (::) (::) (::)**

 **So here we go! And I don't own PJO.**

 **This is happening at the exact same time the last chapter was happening, just for any confusion.**

Sophie's POV (I have a cool scene planned out and I need it from this POV)

Malcolm dropped me off and we walked into the school together, not holding hands (I wasn't a big fan of physical contact) but we did go in together.

A girl named Riley Castellan cornered me when Malcolm left to go out his books in his locker, which was a few halls away from mine. I shoved my books into my locker, where they fel with a clang, and slammed the door shut, turning to face Violet.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly. She was, to put it mildly, a bitch.

She put her hands on her hips. "Hon, I don't want anything. I'm just curious to know-why does that black-haired boy who showed up yesterday wave his hands around so much?"

One of Riley's gang, a girl named Shannon, stepped up. "Hon, she's too stupid to understand. We thirteen-year-olds are much smarter than this ten-year-old."

"Actually, I think yiu'll find that I'm much smarter than you," I interjected coolly. "As I skipped two grades and you skipped-how many again? Oh, right. None."

"Well," Riley sneered. "I think I know why your brother is so into hand-waving! He's deaf, isn't he? Mute also? Useless and pathetic. Just like you and your little boyfriend."

"shut up." I said. "Just shut up and leave me alone, you little bitch."

"My, my," Shannon said cruelly. "The teacher's pet, cursing? I can't believe you, Sophie Jackson."

 **AN: Let's just say that Sally gave Sophie her last name because she didn't like the last name Blofis. Sorry Paul.**

I clenched my hands into fists. "Go away. Just go away and leave me alone." I said, drawing myself up to my full height, which was several inches taller than Riley and Shannon.

Riley smirked smugly. "Oh, little Sophie Jackson. So naive, so stupid, so unwanted. You are aware, of course, that my step-father is owner of the Internet?"

"My step-father is a famous marine biologist and he owns the Georgia Aquarium and all other good aquariums in the world!" I retorted. It was true. Percy's dad was Poseidon Olympian, famous marine biologist and surfer.

Shannon and another girl, Christina, rolled their eyes, "Nobody goes to aquariums anymore! But everyone uses the Internet!"

"Yeah, they use it just si they can look at pictures of you pathetic little rats and feel proud of themselves for not being so ugly, pathetic, and terribly. And of course, they can feel sorry for you." I said.

"Well, Sophie, I wouldn't count on school being enjoyable anymore." Riley said, her blue eyes narrowing to slits. "And my brother Luke is making your brither's life hell too."

 **Line break of awesomeness. Dun dun dun!**

Percy POV

Luke cornered me as Thalia, Nico, and Annabeth left to go get their books in their lockers. All of our lockers were separated by a few hall from the other's and Luke, apparenlty, had decided to use this to his advantage.

I dropped my books in my locker and shut it, turning around and coming face-to-face with Luke Castallen himself.

I tried to shove past him, but his line of football players stood their ground. Well, duh. That was the one thing football players were good at besides grunting, throwing footballs, and getting F's on their tests.

"Hello," I could tell he was purposefully drawing out each and every word to mock me.

I nodded and tried to get past him again. I failed.

"Listen Jackson," he was still exxageranting every word - "Stay off of my girl Annabeth, or else you'll be sorry."

I narrowed my eyes. I didn't know what I felt for Annabeth. Sure, I loved her princess curls and her gray eyes, but as far as knew, I only liked her as a friend.

I scribbled down on a piece of paper, ' _I don't like her. You can have her for all I care.'_

But I knew thatwasn't true. I did like Annabeth, but for now it was a platonic (vocabulary word!) relationship.

I held up the paper for him to read, and he barely even glanced at it, instead rolling his eyes and plucking it out of my hands, and then shredding it to pieces,

He sneered at me. "That's right, you can't talk, can you?"

' _Wow, you noticed already? I didn't know you were so smart.'_ I scrawled.

His ice-blue eyes glittered with malice and he ripped tat paper out of my hands too and it joined the other paper as shreds on the floor.

"Anyways, I thought you'd like to know that your little sister Sophie is having a very pleasant time with my sister, Riley. I hope that Sophie enjoys being bullied?" Like asked, smirking, and still drawing out every word.

I clenched my hands into fists and punched Luke right in the face.

Sophie POV

Thay was it. I had had enough. And how dare she threaten Percy, make fun of Percy, and insult both of us.

I punched her straight in the face.

 **Yes Sophie, yes Percy. Punch the Castellan! Go, go, go! Fight, fight, fight! As always, review, ideas are always appreciated, constructive criticism as well. Please no flames, although if it really is that bad, go ahead.**

 **Until next chapter, Cookies! Zai jian! I need to go find that giant storage of Oreos now...*walks off***


	16. Chapter 14

**Man, last chapter was short. And not that sweet either...yeah. Anyways, I like writing sick/hurt finds, don't ask me why, I am simply messed up. So if any of you guys have an idea for a story and you don't want to write it yourself, PM me and tell me! I'll write it for you!**

 **Anyways, here we go! Disclaimer: Nothing at all. *starts crying in corner***

 **Wahoo! Off we go!**

Percy POV (I will try to focus mainly on Percy and Annabeth now)

Thalia waved me over to her table and I plopped down, wrinkling my nose when I saw the cafeteria food. Or at least what the cafeteria said was food.

Annabeth sat down next to me and scribbled down on a piece of paper: If you don't mind, would you teach me sign language?

I beamed at her and nodded, scrawling down: Sure! I would love to!

Thalia snatched the paper and read it quickly.

"Aw, Annie, you want to learn? Here, I'll show you how to sign 'Hello, how are you?'" Thalia said, smirking. She put her hand up to her ear and waved it, the sign for 'hello', and then took her hands and pointed to the right, swooping them down and pointing. I recognized that sign. It was 'go'.

And then Thalia placed her hands out, right hand palm turned upward and left hand palm turned downward, and then flipped them over, to the left. I raised an eyebrow. That was the sign for 'die'.

"Now do it all together," Thalia instructed. "Yes, that's how it is."

Nico, who had also been watching, snickered. I was bent over in silent laughter. Thalia had just taught Annabeth how to sign, "Hello, go die," under the pretense of teaching her how to sign, "Hello, how are you?"

Annabeth loooked confused. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

Nico managed to choke out, "Thalia...taught you...how to...sign...hello...go die,"

Annaveth turned red. "Thalia Grace!"

I smirked and took her hands and moved them so she signed, 'How are you?" It was basically closing your hands into fists and twisting your knuckles against each other. The right turned outward and the left turns inward, and then you point at the person you're signing at.

I wrote down: That's how you sign how are you.

Annabeth nodded gratefully and signed, "Go DIE," to Thalia. Nico snorted and I let out another one of my silent laughs.

I signed, ' _Dear gods Thalia, don't you know what happens if Annabeth gets mad?'_

Thalia shook her head.

Annabeth tapped me to get my attention and asked, "How do you sign my name?"

I thought for a moment then made a fist with the thumb sticking up and moved it around my face. That was a sort of mashup for A and beautiful.

She examined me and copied my motion. I nodded, pleased, and scribbled, "That's the letter A and beautiful mixed together."

She blushed and wrote down neatly, "How do you sign your name?"

I pointed my index finger down and my thumb straight. My other fingers made a fist. Then I put my hand in front of my chin and waved it back and forth three times. That was what my mom had assigned to me: a mixture of P and water.

'Thats a mixup of P and water.' I scribbled down. She smiled widely and recreated my motions.

"How about Thalia? And Nico?" She asked. I made a fist with the thumb pointing up between the gap between my middle and index fingers and drew a curved line in the air, starting at about eye level and ending at about waist level. T and lightning.

'That was Thalia,' I scrawled. 'T and lightning.'

She grinned and copied me. I nodded and then made a fist with my right hand and made another fist with my left, except my left hand' fist had the thumb poking out from in between my middle and ring fingers. Then I set my right hand fist down sideways and took my left hand, touched it to the top of my fist, and then moved it up in a wavy line. N and ghost.

'That was Nico. N and ghost.' I wrote down. She copied the motions and then repeated them all. I smiled.

"Um-can I come over to your house?" She blurted out. "I just thought it'd be easier to learn there...but if you' rather not.." she trailed off. I smiled and wrote down: 'If you want to.'

She grinned and said, "Great! See you at five!"

Annabeth managed to get Thalia and Nico to promise to come over too and we agreed to meet up at five. Then the bell rang and lunch was dismissed.

 **Oh gods guys sorry for the wait and the terrible shortness. Hope you like the sign language names, and if the description is confusing review or PM me and I'll explain next chapter. I have developed a new schedule for my fanfics and this story will be updated every Tuesday. As always, read and review, until next chapter Cookies bye!**


	17. Chapter 15

**Sorry for the long break between chapters, guys. I just had no inspiration. And I will make a chapter on a stay over at Percy's house, but now...*grins evilly*...enjoy my EVILNESS!**

 **Plus, please forgive me for typos. My fingers are frozen stiff because I spent like two hours outside without gloves on.**

 **Disclimer: Ugh! Fine! I don't own it!**

Percy POV

Annabeth and I were walking home together because she lived close to me. We crossed the street and turned the corner back into the alleyway where Luke had cornered me.

I was in the middle of the alley when Luke jumped out at me again. I rolled my eyes. I mean, seriously? Use he same hiding place over and over? I was definitely not walking home this way ever again.

I felt Annabeth's hand on my shoulder but it was pulled away. I spun around and saw two of Luke's thugs pinning her back against the wall, leaving me and Luke alone in the alley.

One great thing about being deaf? When someone's talking and you don't look at them, you can ignore them! Hooray! So I averted my eyes from Luke's face and I had no idea what he was saying.

Sudenly, I felt him grab my wrist roughly and slam me into the wall. Stars exploded in my eyes as my legs gave out from under me and I collapsed.

A football cleat made contact with my ribs and I screamed silently. Fire burned through me and acid raced through my veins. I could nearly feel my bone on the verge of breaking. Another kick and it broke. I could feel the snap as it cracked in half and I screamed silently again.

Luke jerked my head up so I was facing him and began to talk. "Listen, idiot, get away from my girl or you'll be sorry, got it?"

I weakly flipped my middle finger up at him. Universal sign language was never so useful. Luke growled and delivered another kick to my ribs.

I curled into myself as a delightful shower of kicks and punches rained down on me. I felt another one of my ribs snap and wrapped my arms around myself, protecting the broken ribs.

Finally, he twisted my arms backwards, probably breaking one of my arms, as more sickening fire raced through my right arm, delivered another kick to my ribs, which sent agony through every single cell I had, and I blacked out

Annabeth POV

"Stop!" I screamed, struggling against Luke's two football buddies. "Can't you see that your'e hurting him?"

"Oh, Annabeth," Luke hissed, delivering another kick to Percy's ribs. A sickenign snap echoed through the dimly lit alleyway. "So naive. Why don't you just stop being his friend? After all, he isn't worth anything."

I screamed wordlessly, rage bubbling over. I kneed one of the football dudes in the groin and elbowed the other in the gut. They both doubled over, clutching their injured guts and groins, respectively.

I charged at Luke, delivering a well-aimed blow to his face and then kicking him in the groin. Pro tip for fighting a guy: _Always_ aim for the groin.

Luke fell over, gasping, and I smirked down at him. "Who says that girls are weak?"

He hauled himself up and ran out of the alley. I stuck m tongue out at his retreating back. Childish, I know, but I just had to.

I kneeled down next to Percy and felt his ribs. I could tell at least two were broken, and Luke had probably either broken his arm or dislocated it. That was not good. And to think we had planned a nice, happy day at his house for this afternoon.

I fumbled around in my bag for my phone, using Touch ID, which is way faster than typing in my thirty-digit password, and tapped the phone icon.

I typed in 9-1-1 and pressed it to my ear, growling at the stupid dial tone. Why couldn't the wifi just HURRY UP?!

"Hello?" A cool, feminine voice asked calmly.

"Hi, this is Annabeth Chase. Uh, my friend was attacked in an alley and I think he's got broken ribs and maybe a broken arm. So, uh, what do I do?"

"Stay there," the woman commanded. "Name of your friend?"

"Uh, Percy Jackson," I replied.

"Do you know the name of your attacker?"

"Yes, I do. His name is Luke Castellan."

"Okay. Where are you?"

"Uh, in an alley off Main Street," I said.

 **I know, I know, terrible street names, but what can I say? I just wanna get this chapter up.**

"Okay. The ambulance should come soon and the police will check out this Luke character. Stay there until the ambulance arrives and keep him breathing. You know CPR, correct?"

I nodded, and then smacked my forehead. They couldn't see me through the stupid phone. "Uh, yes, ma'am."

"Good. I'll get it arranged." I heard rustling papers, the same voice yelling something muffled I couldn't make out through the phone, and the clank of metal echoing out of the phone.

 **I am sorry for all the ANs, but I just need to point out that I have never called 9-1-1 and I don't know how they respond. So this is what I came up with. Sorry if I got facts wrong.**

I pressed my ear to Percy's chest and listened for a heartbeat. Thankfully, there was a strong one and I didn't think he would go dying on me anytime soon.

I racked my brain for something I could do to get him to wake up that wasn't cruel. Normally, I'd just yell in their ear, but in Percy's case, that wasn't going to work.

I encircled his wrist with my fingers, keeping it there to make sure his pulse didn't fade. It beat strongly, something I was very, very happy about, and I kept my hand on his chest as well, making sure the heartbeat didnt' slow.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, although it was probably only a few minutes, an ambulance arrived in the alley. Some paramedics hauled Percy onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, asking me questions.

Name?

 _Percy Jackson._

Age?

 _Sixteen._

What is your relationship with him?

 _Uh...we're friends. I think._

Are you riding with him on the ambulance?

 _I...I don't know._

They peppered me with questions I didn't even think were relevant, such as his favorite food, which I didn't know, or his favorite brand of shoe. All I could think was, ' _How is that relevant?'_ Did it matter if he preferred Nike over Adidas?

Finally they finished, and I was brought onto the ambulance with him. Someone was splinting his arm. I had been right, it was broken, and taping up his ribs. Up close, the crooked bone was much more painful looking than it was from further away.

We pulled up at the hospital and they carried him out into a room. He was still unconscious, which I found pretty bad, as he should've woken up earlier...right?

They said I had to stay out because the break on his rib apparently needed surgery. Luke's football cleat was that bad?

I plopped down in one of the white chairs in the waiting area and buried my head in my hands. What had gone wrong? We had just been walking home and then Luke just jumps out from behind a Dumpster and attacks him, some creepy thugs hold me back, and suddenly we're in the hospital and he's going through surgery.

What the fuck (oh gods guys sorry but I had to put in that there because that is what I would think too in this situation) had happened to our planned nice afternoon with Thalia and Nico at Percy's house?

Thalia suddenly ran through the hospital doors. "Annabeth? I heard something happened...to Percy...so me and Nico ran all the way...over here...wow, Nico's slow...anyways, what's going on?"

I let out a low growl. "Luke's going on."

Thalia sat down next to me. "Listen Annabeth, breathe. What happened? Why are you in the hospital? Why is Luke not in a hospital bed if he got you mad? And where's Percy?"

I leaned back against the wall. "So me and Percy were walking to his house and we go into an alley and Luke jumps out at us from behind a Dumpster with two of his buddies. His two buddies pinned me down and Luke went after Percy and broke his ribs and arm, I think. Percy's. Not Luke's. Anyways, I got free and kicked them all in the crotch and called 9-1-1 and here I am. And Percy's going through surgery, apparently." I said, taking a breath at the end.

"Wow," Thalia said. "I cannot believe that little piece of shit. I knew we should have *this part has been removed for fear it would damage younger reader's brains forever* him while we could."

"Thalia!" I protested. "You don't use that colorful language in a hospital, for goodness sake!"

"Shut it," she said. "I have a right to curse after that *beep* did *beep* to Percy!"

"Did I...miss anything?" Nico panted, plopping down next to Thalia. "I heard...somethign abiut Percy...Thalia beat me here...I see. So...what happened?"

I groaned. "Thalia, you explain to this dimwit why he needs to improve his athletic skills and also what happened."

Thalia explained and we sat there, waiting for what seemed like twelve thousand days, but was really only an hour or so. Finally, a professional-looking man came out ad studied us.

"Are you here for Percy Jackson?" He asked crisply. We all nodded and sat up straighter.

"Well, he has three broken ribs and a fractured right arm. He'll be fine, but we are keeping him overnight for further examination, should any other damage pop up. The police have apprehended the suspect Luke Castellan and are in the process of questioning him. Once Perseus wakes up we should be able to get answers and this case should be closed." He said, all in one breath. I was impressed. This guy obviously knew how to give medical reports.

Thalia nodded slowly. "Okay. So, have you contacted his mother yet?"

The guy shook his head. "We are contacting her now and reporting what happened. Luke Castellan has been suspended from school for the time being and, as he is captain of the football team, his team is being questioned as well as to where they were today."

"Okay," I said. "Can we see him?"

The dude shook his head once more. "He is currently unconscious from the surgery. Tomorrow he should be ready for visitors and he will be discharged in about a week."

I nodded and turned away. "Guys, we should probably go and get home."

Nico and Thalia nodded. "Tell us if you get any info," all of us said at the same time.

And so we all left and went our separate ways.

 **Urgh...terrible ending, I know, but still. I had to end it somewhere, right? Anyways, read and review as always, darling cookies!**


	18. Chapter 16

**Geez guys I am so so so f*ckin sorry for not updating for the last month or something. I feel like a horrible person, but there's Christmas coming up, Thanksgiving, and that time I was sick because of the Halloween candy, the time my sister was sick because of Halloween candy, my brother was sick from Halloween candy, and...well, I think you get it. And then there was the County piano auditions coming up, and the huge Chinese test, and the project I had, and...okay, I think you get that too. And the Spelling Bee! Plus I got addicted to these two games called Jetpack Joyride and Rolling sky, I got busy and now I'm back, though!**

 **Plz excuse any spelling/grammar mistakes.**

 **P.S. I changed my writing style a bit, but it was mostly because I have no clue where to go with this. I just want some ideas, so please reviews and give me some so I can update more frequently.**

 **Disclaimer: All goes to RR. I still hate him for his stupid cliffies.**

Annabeth POV

The clock on my nightstand rang with an annoying beeping sound. I groaned and slammed my fist down on it, effectively breaking the clock and turning the sound off. I blinked and pushed myself up on my elbows, cursing when I saw the broken alarm clock. Dammit.

My phone, next to the smashed clock, rang too. I groaned again and picked it up, mumbling into the phone, "Annabeth Chase. How can I help you?"

"Annie!" A familiar and very annoyingly perky voice chirped. I groaned for the third time in two minutes (new record!).

"How are you so energetic..." I yawned, "...in the morning?"

"I just had three cups of coffee and a box of donuts, silly. Anyways, I'm going to go see Percy after school today. You in?" Thalia said brightly. I smirked too myself. Yeah, the donuts and coffee made sense. I was after my coffee too anyways.

"Should've guessed," I mumbled, sittting up and stretching. "Well, I'm gonna go get my own coffee. And sure, I'll meet you in the lobby at four. Iv'e got this essay I have to finish up."

I could almost hear Thalia rolling her eyes through the phone. "I forgot. Annie-Beth has her incredibly important essay on World War I, right? I finished that days ago. Sort of. The Internet is a great help for schoolwork, right?"

"Really Thals?" I grumbled, setting the phone down on the nightstand and changing my pants. "You got it off the Internet? Mr. Brown is going to murder you, you know that, right? And then Jason will be all, 'Thalia, you copied the Internet again?'"

"Whatever. Anyways, you've got like ten minutes before I come to pick you up, so you better hurry. Coffee takes time to brew, you know," Thalia said. "Get out, Jason!" I heard her yell, followed by a thump and a muffled protest that sounded like Jason.

I yawned again and swung my legs over the bed, shoving my feet into my fluffy bunny slippers. Don't judge me. They're warm.

I padded over to the kitchen, tying my blonde curls back in a messy ponytail and starting to brew some coffee, still half-asleep. It takes time to recharge batteries, you know. And it takes time to get caffeine and sugar injected into my system. That is my main source of energy.

I pulled a granola bar out of the pantry and ate it in two bites, hurrying back upstairs to change. I slipped on a pair of capris and a gray t-shirt with an owl on it. I never wore makeup because there was no point in slathering all this gunk over your face to make you 'look pretty'.

The coffee maker beeped (this is how mine works. If your coffeee maker doesn't work this way...well, sorry) and I ran back downstairs, nearly tripping on the last step. I cursed under my breath and poured myself a cup of coffee, gulping it down and pulling my socks on.

I threw my Science book into my backpack, hurriedly brushing my teeth and running a hairbrush through my ponytail, zipping up the backpack and sliding down the banister to get back downstairs. I landed on my feet, opening the front door and going outside to put my shoes on, leaving my backpack on the floor.

I finished tying my shoes and grabbed my backpack, simultaneously checking my watch. I am a master of the multitasking. I still had three minutes before Thalia showed up, so I zipped back inside and grabbed my book, Gone with the Wind, flipping to my bookmark and starting to read again.

Thalia showed up a few minutes later in her car, honking the horn loudly to get my attention. I jerked up and stuffed the book into my backpack, slinging it over my shoulder and getting into Thalia's car.

"So, I was just wondering," Thalia said when I got in. "When did Luke get so strong? Last time I fought him I remember beating the crap out of him and leaving him in an alley. I mean, sure, I had backup, but really?"

I laughed. "He isn't that strong. He has metal-tipped football cleats, duh."

Thalia nodded. "Valid point. Hey, did Mr. Blowfish assign us a worksheet? I think he did...but that miht've been last week, and if he did, I totally lost the worksheet."

I shrugged. "It's Blofis, Thalia, Blofis. And anyways, if he did, I forget. I was too busy doodling pictures of Luke and then shredding them and flushing them down the toilet. And then burning the scraps into ashes and feeding the ashes to the birds. And then killing those birds and-"

Thalia laughed, taking one hand off of the steering wheel to punch my arm. "I get it, I get it. Although really? Killing innocent birds? Now I see why nobody messes with you. I just drew pictures of lethal weapons like grammar homework and Luke together."

I punched her arm back. "Grammar homework isn't a lethal weapon. It's a deadly one."

"Don't those mean exactly the same thing?" Thalia mumbled to herself.

I grinned. "Yup. They mean exactly the same thing. I was testing your grammar knowledge."

"Seriously? You know I'm freaking dyslexic, right? And you also know I get all of my essays for school off the Internet, right? And you know I din't do reading unless it's something with a lot of fighting. Like, a lot a lot kind of fighting. Know what I mean?" Thalia asked.

"So, like The Hunger Games? Cause that has a lot a lot of fighting. And blood, death, destruction, and very violent themes for a children's book." I said. "Oh, and a lot of gory stuff and really stupid names. No offense to Suzanne Collins." **Or any Hunger Games fans out there!**

Thalia wrinkled her nose. "Ew, no. The Hunger Games is like a redo of Twilight. You know, the lovesick girl stuck between two boys. Like, for Katniss it would be, 'Oh, Peeta, your'e my star crossed lover! I can't leave you!' And for Gale it would be, 'Oh, Gale! Your'e my best friend and help me provide for Prim and my mom, so I can't leave you either! Oh, someone help me choose!' Cue dramatic music and even more dramatic faint for Katniss."

 **No offense to Hunger Games fans out there. This is just my personal opinion. And just wondering, has anybody else noticed that one ship name for Peeta x Katniss is Peeniss? Read it out loud. Promise. My friend told me this and I didn't get it at first. Then she said it again and I was like, 'Oh. My. God.'.**

"The Hunger Games is good! It teaches the morales of not killing and how people can be cruel and that you shouldn't choose one of two evils," I argued, crossing my arms. I liked the Hunger Games. Sort of like Twilight, but not really.

"Peeta's name is literally a kind of bread. Like, you know, pita bread? Just spelled with two e's instead of an i?" Thalia said, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. "Stupid traffic jam! I swear, whoever invented traffic lights were real idiots."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Well, we'll get there eventually," I said. "Have you read Gone with the Wind?"

The rest of the car ride passed with me trying to get Thalia to read Gone with the Wind and Thalia stubbornly refusing. 'I don't do old school,' she had said. 'And I don't like love stories. Especially not ones set in the Civil War. So I am not reading that.'

Tgalia let me out outside the doors and drove off to find a parking space. I walked in and was, of course, immeidiately ambushed by Piper, Jason, an the rest of the group.

"Annie! Yesterday sucked, right? Thalia emailed me with something about a hospital and Nico texted something about it on our group chat. So what happened? I've been, like, dying to know, but Thalia and Nico were offline for the rest of the day. So, what's up?" Piper asked, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Well. A lot of...er, stuff happened. You know, can we wait for Thals or Nico to come so we can explain it better?" I asked, twisting my fingers together, unconsciously signing, 'are'.

Piper, Jason, and Leo all looked disappointed, but I'm pretty sure they understood. "Okay," Jason said. "But you better tell us, or I will somehow find Thalia and beat the crap out of her for not telling me when she came home. She just went straight to bed! Why did she go straight to bed?"

I smirked. "Maybe because you and Pipes were having one of your make out sessions."

Piper and Jason turned bright red while Leo snorted, "Yup. I'll bet my Snickers bar that that's the reason why." Leo said, producing a Snickers bar from his pocket. "Anyone up for betting?"

Jason and Piper turned even redder. "That...might have actually been the reason," Piper said, obviously mortified. Jason didn't look any better. He was normally pale but now he looked like a tomato. No exxagerations there either.

I snorted and Leo punched Jason's arm playfully. "Really Jace? Really?"

Jason was so red he could have been a human beacon, but luckily at that moment Thalia and Nico saved him by walking over to us hand in hand.

All four of us clapped. "Finally!" Piper said. "You have no idea how long I was betting on this. Jason, cough up the money." Piper said, holding out her hand. Jason sighed. "Why can't I ever win a bet against you?"

Piper smirked smugly. "Because I know the ways of the heart and you don't. Five bucks and a soda."

Jason sighed again and handed Piper five dollars. "I'll get you the soda later, alright? Just keep the five bucks for now."

"So," I said, looking at Thalia and Nico. "Should we explain exactly what happened yesterday?"

They both nodded and we began the long, tragic tale.

 **The end. It is eleven PM and I have schoo tomorrow so cut me some slack for the terrible wait and even worse chapter. It's just a filler because I haven't really thought out the gang's reaction yet. Gimme time people! Gimme the time!**

 **So anyways, we do have school tomorrow, but we have a Holiday sing and my class is going to sing, 'I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.' Look it up. It's annoyingly repetitive, but really good at the same time. And we get PJ day, and movie day, and electronics day, all rolled into one tomorrow! Woop woop! So happy over here!**

 **well, Bye! Capital letters are so messed up there. Whatever.**


	19. Author note, but please read

**Okay, guys, one quick note: I AM NOT QUITTING THIS STORY. NUH-UH. NO WAY. JUST NO. But I do need ideas, a plot line, you know. I don't want to give you all a filler. I've never liked fillers, and I've never been great at writing them. So you guys, just please review, give me a few ideas that I can use. You know, if you have an account, I can maybe set up a partnership with you? I dunno, I just need some help here. I promise, I no quitsies. But I need a little bit of help here...THROW ME THE DONUT! The red and white one!**

 **Wow, that sounded a lot less completely insane in my head. Well, with genius comes insanity, and with insanity comes a lot of people staring at you. Whatever. Hey, also, a quick poll: Did anyone watch both Storks and Moana and likes Storks better? I know I sure did. So please review and gimme ideas and cookies and bacon and cupcakes and the answer to that poll...okay, you don't have to give me the bacon and cupcakes. But here, have some cookies: (::)**


	20. Chapter 17

So, **I still don't have a lot of ideas, but I'll just suck it up and give you all a filler. I know, I know, but I'm sorry. So I'm hoping we can make it to one hundred reviews in threee more chapters. Come on guys! We can make it!**

 **Disclaimer: I no own PJO.**

 **Sadly.**

Annabeth POV

"So basically, Luke and his slaves beat Percy up while the slaves held you in the corner, and when Luke finished with Percy, you went Hulk ballistic on the slaves and kicked their crotches and then kicked Luke's crotch and Luke ran off and you called 911. And then the ambulance came and Percy got taken and you went with him and they did a surgery or whatever and then Thalia and Nico came and then the doctor dude came and said Percy's got three broken ribs and a broken arm?" Piper said, all in one breath. I was impressed.

"Um, yeah. And it was _fractured,_ not broken," I said, teasing. "Get your facts right."

"How come I didn't get to come?" Jasoncomplained, punching Nico's arm playfully. "Don't I matter? Aren't I your friend? How come you didn't invite me? Or Pipes? Or Leo?"

"Where _is_ Leo?" Thalia asked, looking around. I scanned the hall. No sign of Leo's curly brown hair anywhere.

"Oh. He went to the bathroom. He always goes there whenever things start to get emotional," Piper said, rolling her eyes. "He needs to woman up and take emotional people like a girl."

"He's a boy," Jason and Nico said at the same time.

"So?" Thalia and I huffed. "You two need to woman up."

"We're boys, and you're girls, not women. We could be teens. Maybe. But you're NOT WOMEN. Got it?" Jason said. I smirked at him.

"Woman up."

"That's it!" Jason yelled, starting to chase me. I ducked behind Thalia, grinning to myself. "You're going down, and then I will smirk annoyingly at you and tell you to man up because I'm amazing and you need to be a man!"

"This isn't Mulan!" I semi-yelled. It's still the school hallway, after all. "And I so do not need to be a man!"

Jason sped around Thalia and I darted the other way, throwing my backpack at him. Jason ran right into the backpack and I giggled, grabbing the backpack again and whispering, "Woman up."

Jason sighed. "Truce?"

I smirked, knowing it made him incredibly mad. "Truce."

We shook hands and I pulled Jason off the floor. And of course, since Leo always manages to time his arrival terribly, Leo popped out of the bathroom. "What'd I miss?"

We all looked at each other and burst out laughing.

 **LINEBREAK linebreak linebreak woohoo! Who loves linebreaks raise your hands! Blah blah blah!**

' _So, you coming over at four so we can meet up to see Percy?'_ My phone buzzed slightly and I discreetly took a peek, keeping an eye on Mr. Blofis, who was writing something on the board. A text from Thalia.

'Don't text in class,' I replied, pressing send. My phone buzzed slightly again and beside me, Nico leaned over, taking a peek at my phone screen. When he saw I was on messages, he turned his phone on and texted me.

 _'Thalia's bringing Jason and Piper,'_ Nico texted. **_'Oh, and me. She's also taking me.'_**

'Yes, I'm going,' I typed. ' _Now stop bugging me, I'm pretty sure this will be on the test on Friday and I don't want to bomb because of you all, okay?'_

Behind me, Luke poked my back and threw a sticky note onto my desk. I swung around and glared at him, and unfolded the note.

'Come to the dance with me?'

I scribbled a huge "NO" in the center of the sticky note and flung it back at Luke, thinking venomous things about him that I probably shouldn't repeat here. After all, I'm pretty sure I don't want to expand your curse word dictionary.

My phone buzzed again and I rolled my eyes, checking my messages again. It wasn't Nico or Thalia, or even Jason or Piper or Leo. Nope. It was Luke.

' ** _Come on! You know you want to.'_**

 _'I know I don't want to, so shut up, Luke. I'm deleting you from Contacts.'_

I went to the Contacts app and deleted Luke. My finger hovered over everyone else. Sure, they could be stupid and mean sometimes, but they were still good friends of mine and I didn't have to completely disconnect with the, because of this...did I?

I decided to leave the rest of them and turned my phone off, returning my attention to the lecture Mr. Blofis was giving on correct use of quotations in dialogue.

My phone buzzed _again_ and I pressed the home button, ready to type a curse-filled reply to Luke, when I realized it wasn't Luke. It was Reyna.

 _'Come to my house at four to hang out? Hylla and Will'l be there.'_

I bit my lip. Reyna and Hylla were really nice and I didn't think they had ever dissed Thalia and Nico and everyone else once before. But I was supposed to meet everyone else to see Percy...

'Wait a minute.' I replied to Reyna, switching back the group chat with Nico and Thalia and Jason and Leo and Piper and Percy. _'Can I bring some extra friends?'_ I typed.

 _'Sure,'_ Thalia texted. ' _As long as they don't suck and they aren't complete a-holes.'_

 _'They aren't,'_

I went back to the chat with Reyna and typed in, _'Actually, can you meet me at my house? We can all still hang out.'_

Reyna responded immediately. ' _Sure.'_

I turned my phone off for the last time and scribbled some notes down, peeking over at Nico's notes and doing a few hasty bullet points for the test on Friday. I sighed. Having a weird social life on top of being ADHD and dyslexic really wasn't a piece of cake.

 **Linebreak linebreak linebreak party! Goody bags! Cookies! Yay!**

I finished the last question on the dialogue worksheet Mr. Blofis had given us, sitting back in my chair with a small sigh of triumph. The doorbell rang downstairs and I glanced at my clock. 3:50. That was probably Reyna.

I rushed downstairs and opened the door, coming face-to-face with Reyna, Hylla and Will. Reyna"s dark hair was pulled back in a braid and Hylla's was in a ponytail. Will's blond hair was messy as ever and he was wearing a simple shirt as always.

"Hey, guys!" I said cheerfully. "Come on in! So, um, did any of you hear what Luke did?"

"Luke? Oh, yeah! I remember that Ethan dude - on Luke's football team - so anyways, I heard they assaulted this kid in some alley. I didn't talk to him for that, 'cause Nico told me." Will said.

"Oh, I confirmed that," Hylla said, tucking a strand of her choppy hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear. "Luke said he tried to hurt him and possibly kill him because the kid was trying to take his girl. So Annabeth, you're not Luke's girl anymore?"

"Well, no. But Luke got mad at Percy Jackson, you know, the new kid I was mean to on his first day? Yeah, but you know, I've actually kind of gotten back with Thalia and everyone, and we're going to visit Percy...so if you want to come...I mean, if you don't because they're not popular, I'm perfectly fine..."

"Are you kidding? Luke's being a bitch these days. Won't talk to us, only sits in the corner drawing 'battle plans' or whatever and trying to get you to go to the dance with him. My advice is don't go with him," Reyna said. "I'm coming."

Hylla shrugged. "Sure, why not? I can take all of us out for ice cream afterward. My treat."

Will elbowed her. "My treat.

"Our treat," Hylla amended, grinning. Will elbowed her again.

"So, when do we go?" Reyna asked, smiling cheerfully. I shrugged.

"Thalia should be coming with a car soon. Oh yeah, and she's bringing Jason and Piper and Leo and Nico...on second thought, we may need to make two trips. Whoops. Well, it's fine. We'll all get there." I said. What's done is done, after all.

I pulled out my phone. _'Thals, we may need to make two trips.'_

 **And that's a wrap! Huh, I got an idea while writing! I'm AMAZING!**


	21. Chapter 18

**Guys, I'm sorry for not updating, that's all I can say. Please forgive me for being MIA for so long, but I totally understand you if you gave up on me and my stories. I'm sorry, I really am.**

 **I think you know by now that I don't own PJO. If you don't...let's work on that.**

Annabeth POV (argh I do her so much now)

Thalia texted me back immediately. ' _I'll get my dad to let me borrow his. Oh yeah, BTW, you said Luke was suspended, but wasn't he giving you a hard time in class?'_

Hmm. She had a point. I hadn't thought of that myself. Luke being annoying and crappy was simply a part of life now. The worst part, but still.

' _He probably paid his way out. Isn't his stepdad some rich guy?'_ I replied. Luke had bragged to me once about having a giant inheritance because his stepdad was rich and owned some huge thing. I forgot what it was.

' _Can you pay your way out of a suspension?'_

' _I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. Look, Reyna and Hylla and Will are kinda waiting here with me so you can come pick us up, so seriously, hurry up.'_ I typed, pressing send. Hylla and Will were having a quiet conversation near the threshold.

"What's up?" I asked, turning my phone off and striding over. "Thalia's be here soon with a ride."

"Cool," Reyna said from her position on my couch. "Seriously, how many books do you own?"

"A lot," I said, waving her off. "It's not like I really want to read them...I mean, I kinda do, but dyslexia makes it hard...but theyr'e interesting...but I'd much rather have it read to me...I do want to read it, just not read it. Does that...nope. That makes no sense at all, does it?"

"Nope!" Will said cheerfully. "Hey, is that our ride?" He pointed out the window. I followed his gaze and saw Thalia, leaning out of a car, waving at my house. I opened the door.

"Coming guys?" I called, bounding down the driveway and opening the car door. "Hi guys!" Jason was up front with Thalia, since she was the only one old enough to drive (she had been held back a few grades, I think), and Nico was on the right side. Piper was on the left side, behind Jason. I squeezed into the middle. "Um, did you bring another car?"

"Well, I was going to, but then I realized that's pointless because I'd have to make two trips," Thalia replied, looking st me in the rear view mirror. "Since I'm the only one that can drive and all."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you bribed your way to a license," Jason muttered. "Last time she drove, we nearly ended up in a stop sign."

"That was an _accident_ ," Thalia harrumphed. "And if you want to get there, shut your mouth. Oh, and Annie, would you mind if I dropped you here first because this car is really squished and then I'll leave Pipes and Jason and Nico at the hospital and come back for you guys?"

"Naw, it's fine. I'll stay," Nico said, climbing over me and Piper and stepping out of the crowded car onto the driveway. "I always did want to meet all your friends."

The door slammed shut and Thalia pulled out, driving along a route I wasn't familiar with.

"So..." I said after a few minutes of awkward silence. "How are thighs between you and Nico, Thalia?"

"Hm? Oh, we broke up. I don't think we were ever meant to be anyways. There wasn't, like, a spark, you know? It was more of, 'Hey look! He's cute! I'll go out with him!' and vice verse for him." Thalia said, a little too quickly and a little too enthusiastically.

"Okay, you liar. Tell me the truth," I demanded.

"That is the truth!" Thalia deadpanned, her voice a few pitches higher than normal. "We just didn't like each other. Pipes will tell you! She's a love expert! She knows everything! About love, that is. Not why geometry is so annoying."

"Ha ha, very funny. For the record, geometry is not that hard. So, Pipes, were Pinecone Face and Death Breath ever in love?"

Piper snickered softly. "Nope. Death Boy likes...someone else."

"If you say he likes me I'll kill you."

"Annabeth, you are attractive, but you're not that much of a boy magnet. Seriously, having Percy and Luke _both_ having crushes on you at the same time isn't enough? You need three boys?" Piper teased.

My cheeks were hot at the thought of Percy having a crush on me. "Wait, Percy doesn't - I don't - WE ARE FRIENDS! Completely platonic, not romantically involved in any way, just...two people who happened to meet!"

"Uh-huh, suuuure," Piper laughed. "Even _Jason_ sees it, and he's a blockhead when it comes to matters of the -"

"Heart." Thalia interrupted.

"Wrong! Matters of the cheeseburger!" Piper shouted. "HOW DID YOU NOT GUESS THAT?! I DO THAT EVERY TIME AND EVERY TIME ITS CHEESEBURGER! So anyways, as I was saying, Jason is a total blockhead when it comes to matters of the cheeseburger and the heart. And if he can see the little romantic bubble forming around you and Percy, you two are getting married."

"You wound me, Piper," Jason said dramatically, putting a hand on his chest. "I am a love expert! I know everything there is about love! How dare you!"

"You know nothing about matters of the -" Piper began.

"CHEESEBURGER!" Thalia cried out. "This time I'm right!"

"No you're not. Matters of the heart." Piper corrected.

There was a long awkward silence after that last bit. I shifted uncomfortably in the seat. Beside me, Piper looked at Thalia, looked down at her feet, looked at the back of Jason's head, looked st her shoes, and then shifted.

We rode in silence the whole rest of the way, which was totally uncharacteristic for Piper and Thalia.

When Thalia dropped us off at the hospital, she told us to wait in the lobby for her and everyone else and then we could all go up and have a big surprise party or whatnot and blah blah blah I didn't listen to the rest.

I plopped down in one of the chairs in the lobby and opened an architecture magazine lying in the counter when Piper sat down next to me. "Yeah, so, Thals and Nico never actually got together...Nico was just trying to stay in the closet longer."

I was confused for a second until it hit me. "He's gay?"

 **Bleh. I decided Thalico sucked and went with...solangelo. Duh. Thalia will stay single now...actually, just review and tell me what you think! Should she get with someone, or stay single? And if you want her to get with someone, who? And Thaluke will not be accepted, just saying.**


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